With the first other person arriving into the conference room along with an assistant or servant or whatever their occupation was, Gawain was no longer alone. It was good to see that other people were answering the call, as he believed that for the betterment of the squad to begin, it would have to begin with themselves. And he himself was clearly no saint as he had more or less blown up over the fact that he had shown someone his ass in an attempt at provoking a response. And a response he had gotten, one that had at the very least opened one person’s eyes to the corruption bleeding in through outside sources. Unfortunately enough, it had also more or less put him on blast with the captain due to how he had gone about it, being as unceremonious as he was. He believed the ends justified the means, but maybe that hadn’t been the case.

When the other man sat down at the table, the boy first believed he too might have been a Silva. Something to do with the color of his hair and the way with which he carried himself seemed somewhat reminiscent of them. Then again, the boy had the same colored hair, so he too might be mistaken for one if that were all it took. His behavior at least was different enough, at least so he believed. And more than likely, that was what most other people believed too. Because for all of the things he had done and all of the golden stars and renown he had brought with him, most people saw in him was just a kid.

“For the time being, I’d say the former. There are a few things I feel need to be discussed or even debated properly before long, one of which is in fact a bit of an event.”

Looking at the time, the established start of the meeting had now come and gone, meaning they would be in full effect right now. Had he seen the addition of any further stars beyond his own, he might have assumed any tardiness was due to people being busy while working hard for the sake of the squad. But as it were, he was not at all convinced of this fact. So if others were to join on in, questions would be asked. But for now, he figured the two of them would just have to make due while this mister Beaufort saw to tea and snacks.

“As you know, I’ve not exactly been sitting idly by while waiting for the leaves to turn brown. A good deal of golden stars were earned, and I believe that with a bit of effort, we can at the very least stay ahead of the Black Bulls before the next star festival arrives.”

In this, the boy made no effort to conceal how much he wanted to try and beat the Black Bulls and maybe even the Golden Dawn in this race. But as it were, he knew very well the state his own squad was in, and was aware of the fact that the Golden Dawn were ahead by miles. So even though he had no intention of stopping, it was a losing race, which was also something he didn’t bother concealing along with the fact that he felt entitled to whatever spoils they earned as a squad over what was effectively his work, and his work alone. But that was why he had tried to put together this chat with whoever existed within this squad that might have held some pride in their colors and felt an urge to do better than they had done up until now.

“The problem here being that up until now, I’ve been the only one earning stars. So at the very least, I figured we could have a proper discussion regarding the input of others, as well as an upcoming event that is entirely our own. With the flower blossom fete coming up, and the yule ball being a collaborative effort with the Golden Dawn, I imagined it was high time we hosted an event ourselves. As for what and how, that much is still very much up for debate.”



WC: 707
Total WC: 1565

“And in that lies the problem. Few within this building really know one another aside from their names. They’ve done next to nothing throughout this country that has in any way been worthy of note. So if our people barely know one another, and no real effort is made at showing to one another or the outside what they’re worth, how do you expect anyone to be acknowledged as anything other than some spoiled noble sitting in a luxurious marble castle?”

To say that some of what Freyr brought up rubbed him the wrong way was fairly obvious, though he wouldn’t let it affect how he was going to debate his point within the argument. He had been thinking about all of this for a while now, and considered himself to be one of the few people who really had a developed understanding over the mattered outside of the Captain that had to dig through all of the paperwork whenever a job was done. After all, it was no lie that literally all of the stars they had leading up to the current star festival had been brought in by him. And he hadn’t done so by stealing them from other squads or buying them with vast quantities of yul. He had earned them by struggling and fighting his way throughout the country, taking down numerous and powerful foes in magic dungeons, chasing away dangerous animals and simply put: Helping the people of the country without bias.

In so doing, claiming that stars were just incentives wasn’t untrue in the slightest, because that was really all the were. But for the people who lived within this country, not all had access to the news or heard everything that went on around the royal capital. It was why he had been actively showing his face and flaunting the Silver Eagle colors throughout the forsaken region and common region, as well as the noble region. So even if his face was the only one the people saw, and if the only one who’s reputation actually grew on a personal basis, the fact that he wore the squad colors meant they inadvertently gained a better reputation too. And at the end of the day, that was all that they could hope for. For people to see them as not so much a band of snooty nobles unwilling to help anyone, but as a full-fledged squad that worked for the whole of the country, and could rub it in everyone else’s faces at the festival.

“The fact that we had to greet one another as strangers after having both been a part of this squad for a while now speaks volumes, as I’m sure I won’t need to point out. So however small the stars may be, they speak towards a bigger issue. Renown. Reputation. The overall ability to act for the sake of the country. All of it gets measured at the Star festival for the rest of the country to see. It is quite literally how the vast majority of the country will weigh our merit and either find us lacking… or not.”

Through it all, the fact that he had never really met anyone within the squad for the first few months of him being a knight wasn’t the best kind of feeling. As a commoner, perhaps even a peasant, being inside of a squad of nobles was fairly difficult, though the fact that the captain believed in his potential and had seen his merit meant that he needed to believe in himself too. And even though some of the things he had done to improve the squad from within had been… questionable at best, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t the one who tried the hardest. Right now, he knew of a handful of people within the squad such as Yugo, Mordred and now Freyr, meaning that if they could be convinced to actually work for the sake of the kingdom and their squad, they stood a pretty decent chance of remaining near the top for a period reaching beyond the current star festival.

“Right now, I would not be surprised if this country knows of no Eagle other than the Captain and myself, which honestly makes a lot of sense. The other squads are watching us too. Those currently behind us, as well as those currently ahead of us. They all look at the competition and judge us based on what they see. So regardless of businesses, training or studying, which even I dabble in more often than not, is not an excuse for tardiness. Every single one of us needs to be better and should stop hiding behind empty words and emptier gestures. We need to step up as a squad, and that is my point of view.”

Taking a moment to have a sip of his tea, he looked down into the cup as if trying to figure out what flavor it was. Not being much of a tea drinker or an enjoyer, this one honestly wasn’t that bad. Unsure whether or not he had perhaps spoken a bit too harshly, the facts spoke for themselves. If they were in any way going to be looking good in the star festival, it all depended on Gawain. And having to carry the reputation of an entire squad on a single pair of shoulders was a ridiculous amount of weight to bear, especially at his age. But that was all the more reason for him to try and get others involved in any way or shape possible.

“Which brings me to the other point. Thinking about hosting an event of our own should never be frowned upon, as thinking about these things and coming up with our own ideas shows dedication to the squad. It shows that we’re not just mindless drones, some more than others, that just wander this castle while looking smug. I’m sure the Captain would appreciate it if we brought him a well thought out plan for an event that’ll allow him and his squad to look better than everyone. Whether he’ll put down the final stamp of approval will be his decision alone, though the effort should count for something too.”

Effort. Determination. Two things any squad should hold in high regard when it came to their own members, something of which the Silver Eagles should be no exception. So even if it was only going to be him that was actually going to be pulling the cart, then that was going to be that as he was not going to stop. Because at least he could say that he tried to get others involved.



WC: 1099
Total WC: 2664

“Clearly it is you who is missing the point. You claim it is about bragging rights, and you’re not wrong there, as I do believe that much is a Silver Eagles custom. However, the point you seemed so eager to miss is that the goal of the golden stars is for much, much more than that. Though they are made of gold, they are far more valuable to me than just precious metals and yul. They represent the good work we’ve done throughout this country, and when the Star festival comes around, all squads will be judged in the eyes of the populace based on the amount we’ve garnered.”

The way this guy spoke of how his hard work was nothing more than an egotistical drive towards getting people to praise him was honestly starting to bother him. It was as if the whole concept of this festival was new to him, as if he believed every single star would actually be inscribed with the name “Gawain” to signify that no one else had done a goddamn thing. And while some had acted behind the scenes, the simple fact remained that this was not something the populace saw. All they saw was that the Silver Eagles had remained near the bottom in terms of stars for many, many years in a row. They had been passed by by their rivals, the Golden Dawn. Even squads such as the Black Bulls, the Crimson Lions and the Green Mantis had beaten them. Honestly, there were few squads out there that hadn’t earned more than them. For in the end, zero was still zero.

And for a squad that had the amount of funding and backing from rich and noble families, in the eyes of a commoner such as Gawain, that was entirely unacceptable. And seeing people who came from rich families that were content with just saying his hard work was nothing more than a vanity project just showed how detached from the world they truly were.

“The people of this country, both the rich and the poor, citizens and knights, they will all look to the scoreboard to see who has put in the most work towards the betterment of this country in a practical sense. When you spoke of work done throughout a family or a company, which is all fine and good, but most people won’t see it or understand it. The Star festival’s singular purpose is showing the entirety of this country which squads have put the most feet on the ground and worked the hardest to secure the lives and wellbeing of people all throughout the country. And that is why I do what I do.”

Going off on a bit of a tangent, he could not begin to explain how odd it was to him that he seemed to be the one who had to explain this to someone who had been a knight for longer than he had, had been a citizen in this country for longer than he had, and had quite frankly been alive to learn these sorts of things longer than he had. Working behind the scenes to improve the country through other means was honestly a good thing, but if people put in no work for the squad as a whole, they would still look bad in the end without people like Gawain to keep them afloat in terms of actually visible work out in the field.

“You call it a 'mad dash', and perhaps it was. But the fact that someone my age has managed to do more than the Silver Eagles have done in the many years that came before speaks volumes. And that is why I am reaching out to people now. Together, I imagine we can do far more than I can do on my own, though it seems that for that to happen, people need a push in the right direction. So if you need to believe that you are above me because I did not reach out to you and because you feel I have an ego, then you are entitled to having it.”

Continuing to explain his reasoning behind doing what he did, and putting out the factual statements being that the Silver Eagles had looked ridiculously bad in the eye of the populace for several years now due to the sub-par amount of stars they had managed to gather, meaning they had honestly not done a single goddamn thing as far as being magic knights went. So Freyr could have his opinion about him, though it would by no means change the way things had gone, nor would it change the way things were going to go in the future for the better. Because for all of the things he wished to blame on the fifteen year old boy, the same things would be coming right back around to him. That was, unless the guy had sent him a letter that had gotten lost in the mail.

“But it’s a stupid opinion to have, and I welcome you to prove that you are in fact better than me as you claim. Because in the same breath you blamed me for not reaching out to people, I would ask how many others within our squad you yourself have reached out to. And to be fair, you have made no attempt at reaching out to me either, so any badmouthing you would do on that front is automatically redirected at you. Unless I missed your letter that is. You just like blaming me for putting in the work while you hide behind the fact that I never asked anyone for help up until this point. But I’ve made the effort of asking people here today, which again, is more than any of you have done up until this point.”

Putting the ball back into Freyr’s court, he wondered exactly how he was going to weasel his way out of this one. Blaming Gawain for not reaching out to others was one thing, and the honest fact about it was that he hadn’t, especially considering how most within the squad just saw him as some unhinged commoner child that had no business being in the squad in the first place. Though it would give rise to the idea that, given how Freyr had clearly been bothered by him not reaching out to anyone, he could have also made an attempt at reaching out to Gawain himself. But the truth of the matter was that he hadn’t done so either, and that the boy had still beaten him to the punch by asking the actually interested members of the squad to come in for a gathering to discuss their plan of attack towards improving their standing within the community. But having to admit that would likely dent his own pride.

“So if you want to denounce my work as nothing more than an egotistical mad dash that should not be given the time of day or any form of praise, then I don’t see the point in continuing this discussion. It’s just as petty as you try and make me out to be. So just say the world, and I’ll walk right on out of here so I can go back to doing what the rest of you won’t. Making us look good in the eyes of the downtrodden and the excessively rich alike.”

And there it was. His metaphorical red line. If the guy wanted to, after all of the explaining Gawain had done, still wished to denounce him and all of the hard work he had done, then he was honestly dead in his eyes, and sticking around to waste more of his time talking to some stuck-up noble snob with a chip on his shoulder would be pointless. The fact that this whole meeting existed because he had asked people here could have been seen as him reaching out, but was in turn seen as him lording his hard work over everyone because he had stated that he had, in fact, done all of the work in the field on his own. A statement of fact, nothing more and nothing less. There was nothing opinionated about it, as the “bragging right stars” were there as physical evidence of his hard work and effort, so denouncing that was about as stupid as claiming the sun was actually legally married to the moon.

Standing up from his seat and placing both hands on the table, he looked at Freyr, who seemed to still be enjoying his crackers and tea. But at this point, he was honestly past the point of talking. Right now, the ball was in Freyr’s court, and if he wished to continue along this line, then there was no point to either of them staying here trying to convince the other. So as much as he wished to say something else entirely, like how he could shove his tea-pot and cups up his ass, the boy took a deep breath as he brought his tone down from a five to a two. This was because there was still one thing that remained unsaid, the fact that all of the stars he had earned were there to improve the status and standing of the squad. And that aside from the people he had actually personally helped being aware, no one in the country would ever know that all of those stars were there due to his hard work, and his alone.

“Because at the end of the day, when the Star festival comes around and the scores are shown to the people, they won’t praise me for it. They will praise the squad, the Silver Eagles, for doing their best to make this country better and safer. My name won’t be sung in praise. If you honestly believe that this is about my ego and nothing more, then you can just go back to your mansion to eat your crackers and sip your tea. So what will it be?”



WC: 1676
Total WC: 4340

“Peculiar, one on hand you claim that I want to be praised, and in that same breath you manage to shoehorn in the fact that I’ve been spoiled with praise. The clear difference in this case being people who do something bad and get thrown out is the fact that some have no redeeming qualities, whereas I do. Again, you can look at the scoreboard, it speaks for itself.”

Once again referring to how some of the things Freyr said made no sense to him, the boy had more or less reached the point of no return. Everything he had done had over the past five minutes been reduced to selfishness, ego and a need for praise. The truth was, he needed no praise from any of these good for nothing, lazy pieces of shit. He did not need to be puffed up for these noble sons and daughters that had done nothing to earn their way in aside from being born into the right family. They hadn’t the need to work towards starting up a company and building trade relations, they were born into them and just needed to not fuck up what was given to them. And now people like these wanted to speak down to him, someone who had built everything he had for himself through hard work and determination, all while getting berated every step of the way. It was unfair.

“I don’t need your praise, and I don’t want your praise or anyone elses. What I want is for you to get off of your ass and prove your so-called superiority. I’ve proven myself worthy time and again to make up for my mistake. I know I shouldn’t have done thing the way I did at the time, but in the end, the ends justified the means. Work was put in to make up for what happened, and I went above and beyond to do better than everyone else, yet people like you still judge me for it. As a wiser man than us once said: Those who do nothing make no mistakes.”

This was very much an attack aimed towards those within the squad that hadn’t been doing much of anything, and just used the benefits of being a Silver Eagle for the sake of bragging rights and furthering their ties and connections in the world. These kinds of people disgusted him. Given where he had to come from, being a slave in a foreign land that had to kill for years until he was finally given an out, he had been improving with leaps and bounds. His goal had been to work hard so no one would have to suffer through these sorts of things while working from within one of the most powerful organizations within the kingdom. But now that he was here, dealing with people such as these, he couldn’t help but think he made a mistake in trying to reach out to them. For even attempting to reach out to them. For in the end, no one had come. And the one that had might as well have been one of the most self-righteous douchebags he had ever met.

“I’m not exactly from Clover, at least not where it counts. Where I spent a good majority of my life, you either took care of yourself and handled things on your own, or you’d die. You certainly didn’t grow up free. You did what you were told, or you’d get no food or sleep. I’ve been back here for a year or two, maybe three, and that kind of thing doesn’t just change overnight. And like I said, which is something you’ve managed to talk over in your response, if you’ve even heard it at all. I never asked for handouts since I joined the eagles, and I’ve been on the receiving end of things since I joined for being a commoner. But none of you have reached out to me, yet you point the finger and blame me for not reaching out to you? That’s the pot calling the kettle black, sir.”

Calling it as he saw it, there was no longer any need to hold back. This guy wasn’t listening, nor was he responding to any of the accusations he made towards Gawain getting flung back into his face. For all of the things he wished to berate the boy, he was just as bad. And like he said to him, the guy didn’t want to see what he was being accused of as truth either. So in that, it was clear that the vast majority of what was being discussed here, they could not agree on in the slightest. And while some might be able to stomach such disagreements for the sake of duty, Gawain would much rather keep doing things the way he had always done, and go at it on his own. And when the Star festival came around to show what position he had ended up in, he would make damn sure that everyone knew who the one had been that had put in all of the work, and who had just been sitting in some dusty office drinking tea and dry crackers.

“So for as long as I’m the one doing all of the work here while carrying the majority of the weight, people like you can walk around believing yourselves to be better than me. At the end of the day, I don’t care what you believe, because I assumed that if we worked together, we could see past it for the sake of the squad. But I won’t pretend that a bunch of fencesitters are in any way superior to me. So I’ll do the adult thing and leave things for what they are, as you and I will never see eye to eye on anything.”

With that, he removed himself from the table and made his way over towards the door. In the time he had been spending here trying to get a mountain to move aside ever so slightly, he could have gone out and received a new mission to help people. He could have gone out to earn the squad more stars to improve their standing. But no, he had tried to show people that the way in which things had been going were wrong, and that his way of doing things was better. But as was obvious even before he had come back to the headquarters, the majority of the people here were good for nothing other than sitting on a chair somewhere and looking useless. If this squad was going to change, he was going to have to bring it about by himself, as working with these people in a somewhat equal fashion was utterly pointless. He would make his way towards becoming Vice Captain on his own, and if any of these bottomfeeders believed they could stand in his way, then he’d welcome the challenge and knock them all on their asses in a duel for the position.

“We are done here. Thank you for your time, and thank you for wasting mine.”

Saying the words he had been wanting to say for the majority of their conversation, Gawain closed the door behind him and ventured towards the nearest exit. He wouldn’t hear anything Freyr had to say, as he could only handle so much sanctimonious hypocritical bullshit in one month, and this guy had managed to use up all of it in a single sitting. Perhaps taking down a few bad guys or some rampaging creature would be able to set him straight again, or so he thought as he left the compound.

For as far as he was concerned, this entire thing was a massive failure on all fronts.



WC: 1270
Total WC: 5610

Exit