Chapter Text
The streets were lively, stalls full of food, fancy fabrics and expensive wine stood tall in the warm evening.
People were swarming the place. Buying things that were unnecessary, but pretty. Bunch of drunken men were joking about their daily lives.
"Could you believe it? The foolish youngling though he could take my milk." One of the men barked out, and the rest just laughed.
"That's silly of him. Did ya punish the fool?" Another one questioned, mocking the image of the stealing child.
The other man's haze was lidded, making him look funny. "Of course I did! He cleaned my whole house until there was no dirt left!"
The small group of drunk civilians snickered, continuing their conversation with loud shouts and laughter.
On the other end of the street, kids were playing. They were trying not to get their dresses muddy, because they didn't wanted to anger their mothers, however, none of them could resist the big puddle of rainwater. They jumped in, getting their expensive dresses wet.
Their mother's ran to them, dragging them away by their forearms and smacking them. The cries of the children were overpowered by the yells of fury from their parents.
Right over there, in front of the big church, skilled musicians played their instruments. They created beautiful music, and people danced to it.
Next to them, painters were painting whoever paid them. Their brushes created the shapes representing the human body easily. They were smiling, and their objects of art were smiling too.
Often, people dumped into eachother, spilled their drinks or got into a small fight. Some were singing, other were yelling and the atmosphere was, as I previously said, lively.
It was easy to get lost in the crowd. It was easy to blend in with the unsuspecting villagers.
Yelps of surprise and then of fear could be heard at the start of the square. Horse hooves smashed loudly onto the dirt ground and humans of all ages moved out if their way.
Panic settled and the whole fair was mess. The children that were getting scolded by their parents were crying in fear, the mothers stopped yelling at them and started dragging them away from the animals.
The men stopped laughing, as they were frozen to the ground. The musicians stopped playing charming melodies and the painters stopped painting the snobs.
People either stared at the royal knights, or screamed in panic, moving away from the merciless hooves.
The leader of the knights stopped in track, looking around frantically, searching for the man in the cape. "Delta, you take the left corner. Gama, you will take the right corner. Beta, you will stay here, and Alpha, we will go straight." He looked around once more, determination set in his bloody red eyes. "If you'll manage to catch the murderer, call for others and bring him here. Do not kill him, the prince wants him alive."
He looked over his men, all seated on the horses. He nodded at him while they all screamed in union. They ran to their designated place, looking for the man in the cloak.
His group went forward, trashing all the stalls and pushing away the villagers with complete disinterest.
One of the horses bumped into a young boy who fell onto his butt. He stayed put low and bit down the cry of pain. His mother looked terrified, but didn't dare to move to help or defend her son. She couldn't.
Now, normally, if you were a citizen seeing a knight, you would cheer for them, you would show them their grace and they would be nice to you, but these knights were different.
They didn't go from the dark castle. They always stayed there, protecting the royal family, mostly the only demon prince, the heir of the crown.
These knights brought death everywhere they went. None of their raids were without any casualties. None of the criminals stayed alive for long enough to even leave their city. And those who dared to speak back at them, ended in the same way as the criminals. All of them ended up dead, tortured and killed in front of their neighbors, friends and families.
Suddenly, another horse with a knight ran towards the leader. "Sir!" The warrior greeted. "We had cought the murderer! He is unconscious, but alive."
The leader nodded and turned his horse so they could gallop off after the others. The rest of his group followed him.
All of the 4 sections met at the middle of the square. The unconscious body of the man they wanted from here was limply lying in a cage big enough to fit a grown man.
He was breathing slowly, his chest rising and falling down again. His curly locks fell over his eyes, hiding most of his face from the village. There was streak of blood pouring lazily out of his temple.
The leader of the shady knight nodded, and began their way back towards the castle.