Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

“Even if the whole town laughed at you?” Chloe whispered.

Walter adjusted his position in the hard chair.

“Cruel jokes only last for a few moments, but a solemn promise lasts a lifetime,” Walter stated firmly.

Nothing else dangerous happened during the rest of that long night, but Chloe found herself unable to truly relax until Walter placed his chair by the entrance.

“You need to get some sleep as well,” Chloe murmured softly from the bed.

“I have slept in far worse and more dangerous places during my service,” Walter replied with a gentle smile.