Reborn: Knight's Code Read Online Free Page B

way back to the city. Their speed was decreased thanks to the added burden of the spoils from the bandit camp and the wounds that they had acquired. Potions and spells could heal most wounds, but broken bones took a lot more effort and even then it left ghost pains behind that kept Maria wincing with every step.
    Ash was in a slightly better state than many of the others. He had refused healing the night before for his own wounds thinking that it would be a good reminder that no matter how strong he became, that death was waiting around every corner for those who let their guards down and became overconfident. His shoulder hurt and every now and then the wound would tear open sending small tendrils of warm blood and puss running down his chest and back. With his knowledge from the previous world Ash knew to wash the wound and keep it clean while making sure that it didn’t show any signs of infection. Each time he felt the skin pulling and the dull ach of pain he felt like asking to be healed, but he always quickly pushed the thought aside.
    Though the night before everyone had acted happy now that they had a night’s rest a solemn tension hung above them. Ash had always read books in his previous world when he had time. He had read a number of stories and no small number of them had to do with war. Right now it was almost like one of the war stories he read about. During the fight everyone acted on instinct and shortly after the sheer knowledge that they were alive made them excited. It was only long after that the truth fell on them. In one book that Ash remembered reading about a soldier as he told about his personal experiences. He called the time after a battle when one truly thought about the battle the reflection period. He said that unless you were able to make peace in this period you should stop being a soldier otherwise the rest of your life you will be stuck in a perpetual time of remorse and reflection. When Ash had first read about it, he had been slightly skeptical but now he only started to understand.
    With each step, Ash thought about the day before. The countless faces of the bandits didn’t bother him. The only part of the battle that bothered him was when Den killed the young sleeping woman, but even that was only a passing pain. What really bothered Ash was that he was not bothered by the piles of bodies? He could still remember the feel of the cold bodies as he pulled them away from the center of the camp and into the edge to be burned. The smell of the burning flesh still made his stomach clench but even that was more to do with the simple smell than the fact that it was from bodies that he had killed.
    It was true that it was not Ash’s first battle, nor his first time killing another human. He could still remember the first human killed by his hands. He still thought about it from time to time but it was not something that kept him awake at night. It was just one battle in the mist of many others.
    Ash started to think back to his life ever since he had been reborn. It seemed like it could be told by one battle after another. Then he took a closer look. It was true he had spent most of his time fighting but it was the brief moments between those battles that had truly been important. Meeting Emelia in the back of a carriage after he had been injured. Buying Yuki and then her mother Shina. Those few moments of peace seemed short when he tried to remember them, but they were what truly shined. His life before had been relatively peaceful, but it had also been lonely and dark. Now, only when he was in a world filled with danger did he fell as if he was truly living. As Ash thought that, he remembered the knight’s code that Den had told him the day before.
    Just as Den said, the knight’s code was a simple yet oddly complex thing. The more he thought about the code, the more he remembered that the knights in the middle ages had their own codes. No matter what time period, it seemed that all