Eric: Hey, it's been a while... You're here for the Health potions from the Village Elder?
Captain: Perfect timing. Can you bring Sara out? I need to speak to the both of you?
Eric: Oh? Did the King finally come to his senses and is inviting me to join his Royal Guards?
The Captain and Simon burst out in laughter Simons eyes tearing up, the Captain is still wearing his helmet, but it's safe to assume he's crying from laughter too.
Eric: I wasn't joking, but even if I was, you don't need to laugh that hard.
Eric stated with an embarrassed look on his face, not enjoying how funny they found it.
The two didn't stop laughing, Eric sighed and went in to bring Sara out. By the time Eric and Sara came out, the Captain has called down, but Simon is literally on the ground laughing, a few of the other knights started laughing too, but more so laughing at how hard Simon is laughing.
Suddenly, Simon started throwing up from laughing so hard, which had the Knights who started laughing all start laughing even harder, Simon was still laughing even as he threw up, and Eric looked angry.
Eric: Come on! It's not funny, why are you still laughing?!
Sara: What happened?
Eric: I sai-
Simon suddenly cut Eric off.
Simon No... noohoho... *Laughed* please... I'll start laughing agai-*BLARGH*
Eric: I'll tell you later...
Captain: Hehe... What you said was hilarious, though... Anyways, I need to talk to you about your son, what's his name?
Sara: Cashew.
Captain: Oh, you named him after your favorite snack item, nice. Anyways, I found this out 15 minutes ago, so I can't promise anything, but since Cashew has talent for Magi-
Eric: What?
Eric cut him off before the Captain even finished saying the word "Magic"
Captain: Right... I forgot... You have this strange hatred for Magic...
Eric: My son doesn't know magic. I sure as hell didn't teach him. The Village Elder didn't teach him, where the hell would he even learn Magic?
Captain: I don't know, but if he can use Magic, then the King might want to nurture his talent and enroll him into the military when he's older.
Sara: That's great!
Eric: No, it's not! My kid shouldn't know Magic, why would he know such a Cowardly way to fight?
Tarhil: Every single knight here knows magic, are you saying that we are cowards?
Eric not wanting to answer the question, stated silent. Simon, who has been on the ground laughing and occasionally vomiting the entire time has finally started to calm down.
Sara: I mean, it would make sense if he does know magic. How else would he have survived in that cave?
Eric, I need to confront the kid...
Eric stated as he turned around to go inside, but Sara stopped him.
Sara: Wait! Hes Asleep, at least wait until he wakes up.
Captain, speaking of, he's most likely asleep because of Mana exhaustion.
Eric: What is that?
Captain: it's mostly something that children suffer. Should a child drain their entire Mana pool, they will lose consciousness and sleep until they regain their Mana.
Sara: Why do you think it's that?
Captain: Well, I could be wrong, but the eyes are the most obvious tell. I haven't seen his eyes yet. As your Mana pool starts to empty, your eyes will start to turn blue. When your Mana pool is barely empty, your eyes will retain their normal color with a hint of blue, and the more you use your Mana, the more blue they will turn until they change completely blue, and when you hit Mana Exhaustion, your eyes will be dark blue, bordering on purple, once your eyes border on purple, that's when you lose consciousness. A child is more likely to lose consciousness as most get used to it by adulthood and not pass out. Even if you start learning magic later in life, you usually still won't lose consciousness after draining all your Mana. As for how I can tell, another less reliable tell is when the veins on your forearm become more obvious. Your kid has very obvious veins on his forearm, so I assume Mana Exhaustion.
Eric: That's an unreliable guess. The kid could just have manly arms with veins naturally bulging out!
Captain: Like I said, I could be wrong, I won't know unless I see his eyes. Or you can look. If they are Dark Blue, Bordering on Purple, then it's Mana Exhaustion. By the way, tell me, when was the last time you saw a young child with man arms?
While Eric kept saying that the Captains guess was unreliable and his kid can't know magic, Sara went inside and went to where she left Cashew, On the bed she and Eric share.
She leaned closer to him, using one hand to gently lift his eyelids open and the other to keep her hair out of Cashews face.
Sara: Dark blue with a hint of purple! But wait... What color were his eyes originally?...
Sara stood up straight and wondered, she can't seem to remember Cashews natural eye color.
Sara: his hair is brown, maybe even a really dark blonde, people with dark hair always have dark eyes, too... Wait... The new Knight in the Captains squad, he has black hair and silver eyes, so dark hair doesn't instantly mean dark eyes...
Sara started questioning what Cashews eye color was as she couldn't remember.
Sara: My eyes are blue and I believe Eric's eyes are brown... Cashews hair color is closer to mine...
Sara decided to stop asking herself and go ask Eric just to be confident.
Sara came out of the house and approached Eric and the Captain again, she had a Nervous look on her face.
Captain: Well? What color? Were they dark blue with a hint of purple?
Sara: Yes, but... Eric... *Whispers* what color were Cashews eyes originally?
Eric: What?
Sara: What color is Cashews normal eye color?
Eric: You don't remember his eye color?...
Sara: Well, you've been hoarding him for the past year, always taking him and Meredith to your work and I'd never see Cashew until he's asleep. Which he's always asleep!
Captain: Uh... His natural eye color doesn't really matter unless his eyes are naturally dark blue with a hint of purple, and that eye color would only happen if you're Royalty in the country of Alabahardren. Which I assume you are not. If his eyes are naturally blue, then it's difficult to tell how much Mana he may have left from using his eyes, but it won't matter for telling if he has Mana Exhaustion... Where is Meredith, anyways?
Eric: I don't know, she hasn't been here for a few weeks, why?
Captain: She and Yolun are of similar age, so I figured I'd introduce them to each other and see what happens, but I guess that won't happen as Yolun met someone else. Anyways, since your kid most likely has a talent for magic, I figured I could try and introduce him to the King. The King sees value in magic and if someone shows talent in it at such a young age, he will definitely want to know.
Eric: Not happening! My kid doesn't know magic! He has no way to even learn magic.
Captain: it's possible he just... Knew the spells and didn't need to be taught. Which would make him even more valuable to the King.
Eric: Not happening! He doesn't know magic, there must be a second kid in this village that nobody knows about.
Sara: Eric, you're seriously gonna reject a good. Future for our kid because of a personal grudge you have?
Eric: I'm not rejecting a future he doesn't have because he can't use magic. How could he have a good future in magic if he can't even use it?
Captain: uh... Me and my knights visit this village once a month, you know that, so, uh ... I'll ask again next month when you two have more time to think about it.
Eric: No need to ask again, sorry for wasting your time on this!
Eric Dismissed The Captain very easily and he and Sara kept arguing over this. Sara wants to take advantage and see if this can get her kid a good future while Eric is rejecting the idea of Cashew even knowing magic.
Simon stopped laughing, but mostly because he lost consciousness and is currently drowning in a pool of his own vomit. The Captain saw this and sighed, telling Tarhil and Corpo to take Simon to the nearby river and clean him. Or preferably wake him up.
The Captain started walking away and suddenly realized something.
Captain: I was speaking to Meredith's mother less than an hour ago. I could have just asked her where Meredith was instead of asking them...
The Captain laughed at his oversight, heading over to his knights, lining them up again, and handing them each 5 potions from the bags he had, telling them that the potions need to last as they won't be back here for another Month. All of the knights waited on Simon to come back conscious before they head back to the Battlefield between their nation and the nation of Drembord.
Meanwhile, at the Riverside, Corpo had Simon laying on the ground next to the river, using Simons Ponytail to pull his head out of the water. Simons upper body armor was off of his body and Tarhil was off to the side using river water to clean any potential vomit off.
Simon suddenly started coughing and Corpo let go of his hair, letting Simon support himself.
Simon: FUCK!... What happened?
Corpo: Eric said something you found funny and you laughed until you started vomiting and you laughed and vomited until you passed out.
Simon: Oh, yeah!... *Chuckles* Eric should have applied to be a Court Jester instead of a knight with his comedic talent.
Corpo: You remember that day? Eric walked up to the King, didn't even bow or lower his head, and asked to be knighted. I'm surprised the King was still able to be Polite to him afterwards, but the King instantly rejected him.
Simon: If he pulled that stunt on the current King, he'd have lost his head. What happened after I lost consciousness?
Corpo: Captain mentioned bringing the boy to the King and seeing if the Kid really does know magic. Then I assume Nurturing that Talent until he's old enough to join to Military.
Simon: Damn. Not gonna lie, I hope that doesn't happen. If it was the previous King, Sure, but this one? I know I can't speak Ill of the King, but we all know the King is borderline abusive. I don't want to see the kid brought into that. Plus, the Kid is Ballsy. I've only interacted with him for maybe 5 minutes, but if that's anything to go off, he's gonna manage to get killed by the King.
Corpo: Yeah... You were always carefree with King Edward IV, but when you tried that on the next King, the Captain has to beg just to keep you from losing your head.
As they Talked, Tarhil finished cleaning Simons armor and carried it over to him.
Simon: Thanks, Tarhil, I owe you one...
Tarhil: You owe me a hundred. You're just as bad as Lona with Brothels and prostitutes, yet you owe me so much money. Now you gotta spend more money to buy him something like you promised.
Simon: I didn't promise and dammit... I forgot about that...
Tarhil: And I'm not gonna let you forget, don't let the kid grow up thinking adults are liars.
Corpo: But adults are liars?...
Tarhil: Let him grow up thinking adults only lie to other adults...