paladinlost | 27th moon [video]

It could still happen. Three of my friends arrived at the same time, last week; that counts as a miracle.

I doubt Johto is going to resurrect many more two-thousand year old knights, least of all with my miserable fortune.

...Would bringing a dead two thousand year old kinght to Johto be any harder than bringing anyone else?

Theoretically, no. But using that logic, this place could have dozens of Red Branch Knights or warriors from any other era.

As it stands, it seems to be me, Connla, and one or two other heroic spirits.

You have each other, at least. Too many here find themselves without allies, in a world they cannot always trust.

...Guess it'd be my job to keep an eye on people like that.

Someone has to.

Taking care of each other should be everyone's responsibility. We all share the same circumstances, after all.

Yeah, that's true. But protecting those weaker than himself is a knight's duty...and it's my job to do only what I think is right.

No one should ever have to act in a manner they believe to be wrong. I pity those who are asked to join Team Rocket.

Yeah, same here. But there must be some way to get rid of them without going after the unwilling pawns.

Take out the commander and the rest of the army falls apart. It's only a question of who the leader is.

...Perhaps those who were forced to join would know. Some of them must certainly wish to work to bring them down.

There's a fair chance of that, yeah. But if the leader drafts in the unwilling, I can't help but think they would stay as hidden as they could for fear of exactly that kind of uprising.

We could always offer them protection. Considering the number of powerful trainers here, managing that should be easy enough.

Yeah, you'd think that. I doubt it'd be that easy.

It makes me think of a story I heard once, honestly; a country was about to be invaded by a small army. The country would have repelled the invading force easily, but all their warriors were left unable to fight by a curse.

What I'm getting at, Cecil, is that even if something looks easy, you never know what kind of things are going to screw you over.

...Then again, the invasion failed anyway, so maybe I'm wrong.

...How did the invasion fail, if the knights were cursed? Did the people rise up and take arms to defend their lands?

[Sorry, was there a moral or an important life lesson to the story? Cecil is too busy thinking about the logistics.]

[Oh, Cecil. Welcome to the missing-the-point party.]

There was only one person standing that could hold a weapon; some stupid teenager who thought he was invincible. He met the army at a river and cast a spell of one-on-one combat. Every time an enemy knight would approach, he'd defeat them one after another. The story says the standoff lasted months. The army recovered and the invasion was driven out.

[Lancer wasn't lying when he said he'd heard the story, because of course he had.]

[No one would shut up about the incident after he'd done it, after all.]

Stupid teenagers who think they are invincible are surprisingly efficient fighters, but a months-long standoff should be enough to drive anyone to exhaustion. How did he manage to last so long? ...Though a spell of one-on-one combat sounds extremely useful.

[Details are always more important than the bigger picture.]

He was just that good. Apparently he was a demigod who, according to legend, was stronger than half the country even when he was a little kid.

I hear there's a whole lot of stories about that guy, actually.

[Which was a-okay with Lancer.]

We can hear much from stories and legends, but embellishments are inevitable. Are there any remaining eye-witness accounts?

It was a few millenia ago. Two, two and a half? Depends on what year you're from, I guess.

So, I guess not. Only way to know for sure would be to find the guy they wrote so much about. But of course, he's been dead for ages.

Last year was the 556th anniversay of the founding of the kingdom of Baron, if that means anything in your world.

I suppose so. Even the Lunarians cannot live for so long.

Not in the slightest. It was, uh...2004, I think, when I came here. Sometime in winter, can't remember exactly.

...heh. He'd have to be a stubborn idiot, hanging on even now.

Trying to compare times between worlds is starting to look impossible.

Perhaps not an idiot. Surviving takes a certain amount of talent.

You're right about that much. Even if he was still around, it'd be hard to track him down.

[Okay, now he was just screwing around.]

I hear he went by so many names in his time, choosing an alias to keep himself hidden would be easy.

[Beat.]

...Although these days he just calls himself 'Lancer'. Go figure, huh?

[A pause. Well.]

...So many names over the years, and he calls himself after a pokey stick? I guess imagination truly does disappear with age.