Andrew woke sore and heavy-limbed. He pushed himself up from the chair slanted against the wall of his study. Documents and papers lay scattered across the floor around him — he had fallen asleep amid his work again. He yawned deeply, sleepily locked his door, stripped off his clothes, and stepped into the bath.
An hour later he emerged, having dozed off in the tub once more. After washing up, he stood by the tall window with a mug in hand, rinsing his mouth after brushing his teeth. Down in the courtyard, he spotted Bella and Mark engaged in a mild discussion. His siblings had never shown much interest in inheriting the family name or becoming the new head. There was no squabble over the matter — they were already rich, and that seemed enough for them.
He had never really understood what Mark was after, but Bella was determined to join the knights someday. Sarah, on the other hand, seemed interested in nothing except whatever strange experiments she was conducting in her lab.
He didn't really have a relationship with her. He could remember quite vividly the times he had made fun of her, and the memory made him feel extremely stupid now. He sighed.
His room was painted a soft sky blue and was extremely neat, except for the desk, which was buried under piles of parchments, notes, and drawings. His sword lay abandoned on the floor — he hadn't practiced much lately. Being the next successor wasn't easy. With one last glance at Mark and Bella below, he returned to his desk.
A knock sounded on his door.
"Come in," he muttered, his voice still thick with tiredness.
The door rattled but didn't open. He sighed — he had forgotten to unlock it.
"Just a sec," he said slowly as he approached. When he opened the door, a dark-haired female knight stood rigidly in front of him. Her silver armor gleamed as always, her left hand resting on the hilt of her massive longsword. She was slightly shorter than Andrew.
"Nina? I didn't think it would take this quickly to finish your task," Andrew said slowly as he let her in.
"There were no leads," she huffed, walking into the room. Her metal boots thudded softly against the carpet. She glanced around, her eyes falling on his cluttered desk — the only severely scattered thing in the otherwise tidy space. She made her way there and began tidying up. "I left the job for the captain and his men," she continued.
"You abandoned your duties?" Andrew sounded astonished.
"Duties?" She looked utterly confused, her grey eyes never leaving the papers she was organizing. "I don't have any duties there. I was just backup anyway. Besides, with the captain present, I doubt anything would go wrong. He's far stronger than me, so my presence or absence would make no difference."
"Still, you should have at least made a proper statement before leaving," Andrew sighed, sinking heavily into the chair in front of his desk.
"I did," she continued, piling most of the papers into a neat file and starting on the parchments. "I left it yesterday night before I departed. I left him a note."
"Act like a proper knight for once," Andrew scoffed, taking a look at a contract that required his signature. He frowned at it.
"I am," she defended, "I'm your knight, so isn't it proper that I be by your side? The manor was invaded just weeks ago. As your knight, I can't be somewhere else while my master is without a guard. That's my first and foremost duty — the protection of my master."
"Yeah, yeah," Andrew muttered. "Here, take a look at this." He handed her a slip. She took it, looking severely wronged.
"Another attack this month," Andrew said as she stared at the report. "What's worse is we haven't been able to catch the creature yet, even with us on guard and searching for months."
"Yeah, it's getting concerning," Nina added, tapping the sheet. "The people are getting uneasy. We should hire some mages," she suggested. "Maybe it's more magical than just a regular beast."
"I did," Andrew said, handing her a paper of the job description he had posted around the kingdom. "I even went to famous guilds, but no mage would want to go anywhere near that forest after seeing the corpses. They're scared out of their wits, the bastards. As if we knights aren't scared too."
"A shame," Nina sighed. Something outside the window caught her eye. She walked over to look. Sarah was sprinting around the manor holding something she couldn't quite make out, while Mark chased after her, yelling incomprehensibly. Sarah tossed the object. It flew a few feet and exploded, taking a large chunk of the ground with it. But it didn't spray debris everywhere — the blast was clean and circular, almost controlled.
"She has grown quite a lot, hasn't she?" Nina said to Andrew.
"Yeah, I guess so," Andrew replied curtly, brooding over more work on his desk. Nina stared at him.
"I think you should take a break," she suggested. "You might die from overworking yourself if you're not careful. I mean, your father seems to have plenty of years left in him."
"I can't," Andrew said briefly.
"What about your sister and brother? Last time I checked, they're mages. Bella has better control," Nina continued, still staring out the window.
"You expect me to bring them into a dangerous forest? They're not even soldiers or knights," Andrew growled.
"Don't get pissed at me," she scoffed. "I'm just suggesting. Besides, we don't need to take them in. They can just tell us if there are any magical signatures coming from the forest and point us in the right direction." She walked around his desk, picked up Andrew's sword, and stared at his side profile. She looked severely offended now.
Andrew tried concentrating on his work but couldn't under her stare. "What is it this time?" he asked suddenly. His eyes fell on the premium sword in her hands, its sheath laced with gold. "Oh, if it's about the sword, you can just rest it against my desk."
"Did you know I bought this with a year's worth of my salary?" she huffed. "How can you treat my gift so lightly? Do you know how many things I could have bought with that money?"
"Sorry about that, but I could have gotten a sword on my own, you know," Andrew said, signing multiple papers and shifting them aside.
"That's not the point. You shouldn't have accepted it and kept on using it if you could have gotten a better sword. Now you're discarding it?" Nina's grip tightened around the sword.
"Look, Nina, I didn't intend on placing your gift on the floor, but it just happened. I was tired. Just let it go," he said, brooding over more papers.
"Jerk," she muttered.
"What was that?" Andrew asked as she walked over and stood beside his desk, her armor gleaming.
"It's nothing," she scoffed. She placed the sword on his desk and stood still, facing the door. It suddenly swung open, and Marco stepped in.
Marco walked toward Andrew's desk, his eyes taking in both of them. "It seems you have managed to offend your knight," he said softly.
"Uh? How?" Andrew asked, looking away from his work.
"Never mind," Marco said firmly. Andrew stared at Nina, who turned away pouting.
"If you're up for it, we're about to make a trip," Marco said slowly. "We've found intel about the group known as the Ordeal — the one that tried killing your brother."
"Of course, I'd be—" Andrew was interrupted. Nina was suddenly coughing loudly. Both father and son stared at her.
She faced Marco, stood in a salute, and bowed. "Forgive me for speaking out of line as a mere knight, but I don't think Master should be accompanying you on this journey," she said slowly.
Marco's eyes swept over her bowed head. "And why is that?" he asked, purely out of amusement.
"He needs rest," she said simply. "You can clearly see the dark circles around his eyes from a mile away. Though it's unprofessional of me to speak on family matters, as his knight I must do my best to care for him to the best of my abilities. In this case, he deserves a break of some sort." She kept her head bowed.
"In other words, you're not taking on the role of a maid together with being a knight," Marco smiled. Nina's armor creaked as she flinched.
"If that's how it is, then so be it," she concluded.
Marco smiled. "Andrew, what do you have to say about all this?"
Andrew looked back and forth from his bowed knight to his father. "I think I'm okay, really. I should be able—"
"Master is too tired to think straight," Nina interrupted, still in a bow.
"Very well," Marco smiled as he walked away. "I can clearly see why you chose her to be your knight among those I selected." He paused at the door. "You get a week of rest. I'll handle all the matters regarding the manor before then." The door shut behind him.
"Phew! I thought I'd get fired for that, honestly," Nina suddenly broke out.
"What did you do that for?" Andrew yelled.
Nina gave him a look of severe disapproval and pouted again, staring away at the other side of the room, still upset about the sword.
It was around noon before Andrew left his room, Nina walking behind him. He was dressed appropriately but casually, his ashen hair lying in carefully arranged clumps. He stopped just outside the door and stared at Nina as if searching for something.
"What?" she asked nervously.
"Why don't you ditch the armor? I mean, we're only going on a stroll around the province. You don't need to look like a walking chandelier for that," Andrew said slowly, his hand on his chin. "Besides, isn't it better to wear leather armor than steel?"
Nina stayed expressionless for a while. She stared at her custom-made armor. Her body mass had always been smaller than the armors they had in shops, so it had been expensive to have it custom-made. It was her size, but it always felt uncomfortable.
"You really think I should ditch it? I mean, I'm not objecting, but what if we're attacked? That'll be one less layer of protection," she fumbled with her armor.
"Just ditch it," Andrew huffed.
Nina walked by his side as they made their way outside the manor. She was dressed in all black — a type of cloth that clung tightly to her skin. Her sword still hung in its sheath, strapped lazily to her hip. They were engaged in a light discussion as they crossed the courtyard toward the gate.
"Is that Nina?" Bella asked. "I didn't know she had come back to the manor." She poked Sarah in the head. "Are you even listening to me?"
Sarah was busy piecing together bits of metal that looked weird. She was adamant about completing it. "Who's Nina?" she asked without looking up.
"Come on, you can't seriously tell me you don't know," Bella gasped. "You know Nina? The girl almost as tall as Andrew, raven-black hair, extremely pretty. You know, Andrew's knight that was hired about two years ago." Bella gestured as she explained.
"Nope, not a clue," Sarah frowned in concentration.
"You massive dolt," Bella huffed angrily, raising Sarah's head. "That Nina."
"Oh. Oh," Sarah said seriously. She turned back to what she was doing instantly.
"You still don't know her, do you?" Bella sighed.
"Nope," Sarah said flatly.
Bella, with a look of utter defeat, asked Sarah what she was doing, but before Sarah could answer, they were interrupted by their father.
"Sarah, may I have a word?" he said slowly.
Bella looked away.
"Whatever it is, we can talk here," Sarah cursed as one of the metal pieces flew off. Marco caught it and handed it back to her. She took it without looking up.
"The assassin you found in Mark's room — may I take a look at what you used on him?" he said simply.
Sarah looked at him for the first time. His face was stone cold.
"Be careful," she muttered, handing over a bag she had taken from her coat pocket and going back to work. Marco opened it. Inside were tiny metal balls with different lighting. There were quite a large number of them in the bag.
"They don't explode unless thrown. And they don't hit the ground either — they levitate for a while until hit by an external force before exploding," Sarah rambled, a look of joy on her face as her cube was almost complete. "The more colorful it is, the bigger the explosion. Also, always throw three at a time — it creates a chain reaction. The first explodes on the enemy; the remaining two track down the enemy if they're still alive and explode one by one. The colors don't matter for that — you can throw any three at a time."
Marco stared at the balls. "I think I'll need just three," he said, handing the bag back to Sarah. It was one of the few times they had seen their dad in armor. His was always leather and enabled him to move quickly. They hadn't really seen him in action, but they were sure wherever he was going right now had to have some danger.
"Is it about the Ordeal?" Bella asked.
"Yeah. It's best to be prepared," Marco said, not taking his eyes off the pea on Sarah's neck. "Well, I best be on my way. The knights would get anxious if I waste any more time." He waved as he went. Bella waved back.
"It's finally done," Sarah smiled at the glowing broken metal cube in her hand.
"What is it?" Bella asked, suddenly interested because of the glow.
"We'll see in a while," she grinned. "I got the parts from our treasury. It was a fleeting idea. I just hope it works."
"Are you stealing from the treasury again?" Bella asked sternly.
"Well, someone has to use the pile of gold rotting away there. What is wrong with all of you? None of you guys spend extravagantly. How can you call yourselves nobles?" Sarah defended.
Bella opened her mouth to speak, but Sarah continued.
She plucked a strand of hair from her head. It resonated with the blue glow coming from the cube. She brought it closer. The hair slowly disintegrated. The cube hummed and vibrated violently, but Sarah held on. Bella had already taken steps back, but Sarah still stared at it unfazed.
The cube started breaking apart. It was crumbling and rearranging. Soon there were two smaller cubes in Sarah's hand, both of different colors — blue and green.
"Here," she called, tossing the green one to Bella, who caught it because it flew at her but held it away from her face, staring at it suspiciously.
Sarah held onto the blue one, still sitting. "Safe point," she said loudly.
Bella looked at her. Nothing happened at first. Then, almost suddenly, she felt massive weight in her hand. She was shocked to see she was suddenly holding Sarah.
Sarah smiled at her. "I think it works."
"What?" Bella asked, confused. "How did you…? Is it the cube?"
"Slow down, old one," Sarah sighed. "I'll call them point keys. The blue is tied to me, while the green is the safe point. So practically I can place it anywhere, and as long as I'm with the blue one, I'll be able to go wherever the green is… though I'm not sure if magic nullifying would work against it. It's an artifact, so I doubt it will."
Bella stared at her, amazed. "How do you come up with these things?" she blurted out.
"To be honest, I'd be lying if I said I knew," Sarah put both cubes in her pocket. "They just keep coming to me like someone is feeding my mind with new info." She sighed.
"So what are you going to use it for?" Bella asked.
"Well, unlike you guys, I can't take a hit or practically defend myself if the opponent is just severely strong or way faster. So this is like an escape plan," she smiled.
"But you do have means of fighting back. I mean, you have all those artifacts," Bella started.
"They're tools. They can always run out," Sarah tossed the cubes in her hand, "or worse, some may not work the time you need them the most."
Bella noticed Sarah looked sad for some reason. Had her artifacts failed her before? But when? she thought.
"So where are you going to place the green cube?" Bella suddenly asked, changing the topic.
"I don't know," Sarah muttered. "It has crossed my mind many times and to so many places, but to be honest I really don't know." Her eyes were on the floor.
"Honestly, when I started this walk, I didn't have a definite goal in mind other than seeing the town… but for some reason, it somehow turned into something else," Andrew said.
"It's just a little mud, Master. No need to fret. At least we helped the man pull his cow and cart out of the mud," Nina said brightly. Mud covered her from her chin downward. Andrew was covered entirely in mud. He sighed.
"There's supposed to be a bath house somewhere around town, but I can't seem to find it," Nina looked around in vain. People passing by waved at them happily. She waved back.
"We should just head back to the manor," Andrew suggested, getting up from the stump he had sat down on. His hair was scattered and artistically painted by black muck.
"No!" Nina blocked his path. "That'll ruin the whole point of all this!" she shrieked.
"Point? What point? I just wanted to go on a light stroll, but so far we helped catch a stray chicken, advertise a store whose business had gone downhill lately, tend to animals in a barn because it was too much workload for an elderly couple, helped a man offload his carts which had like a thousand heavy goods, and now I'm covered in mud. I should have just looked the other way when he sank in. I mean, you did warn him," Andrew said tiredly.
"But it was fun, wasn't it?" Nina asked, suddenly nervous.
"Yeah, if you consider slipping on dung, getting your finger crushed by a heavy crate, and getting pecked by an angry bird fun… yeah, sure, I'm having the time of my life here. Let's just go home, Nina."
"So you had a terrible day," she muttered.
"Not quite. I didn't take notes about things we need to do for the town — stuff my father is too busy to attend to at the moment. For one, almost all the lamps in most districts are bad. Then there's the giant hourglass that's broken and the church that's in ruins. There are many things we should be able to fix in the span of a week," Andrew said thoughtfully.
"You're not spending your week off doing all those things. Sure, they're fine and laced with good intentions, but—"
"But what?" Andrew interrupted her. "Sure, I'm supposed to be resting, but whatever this is—" he said, stamping his foot. The mud made it have the opposite effect; it was squishy and sprayed mud everywhere. "This is the opposite of that." He calmed his voice down.
"Sorry, I didn't realize that—"
"It's not your fault, Nina," Andrew sighed. "The day was chaotic, but I wouldn't call it my worst day. I actually liked helping those people. It just didn't go the way I expected. I'm just paranoid about how everything turned out. Don't beat yourself up. The day was great. Now let's go clean up. I don't think I can stand the stench any longer." He sniffed his outfit.
He started walking, but Nina wasn't following. After a while, he sighed and turned back. "What's wrong this time?"
"Forgive me, Master, but I think there's somewhere you have to see. And seeing as it's almost dusk, it's the perfect time," Nina said softly, almost silently.
"What? I can't hear you. Speak up," Andrew came closer. She suddenly grabbed his arm and started pulling him down the off-road trail.
"When punishing me later, please don't touch my salary!" she yelled as she broke into a run, and Andrew was forced to run too.
It was almost thirty minutes, and they were still running. Though he was fit, he was nowhere near the level of an actual trained knight. Andrew was running out of breath.
"Almost there. Just hang on," he heard Nina call out. She was slowing down. The mud on her boots had gone hard and was breaking apart like cookies. Eventually she stopped. She turned around, staring at him with a smug look.
"Behold, my spot," she smiled and showed him the view. The river was wide and seemed like it went on forever. The setting sun reflected red in the water. The red sky was clear. A cold breeze blew from here and there. Andrew took a deep breath. He rested against a tree just close to the water, a smile on his face.
"Sure, I appreciate you bringing me here, but claiming this is your spot is a bit much," he laughed. "There are lots of couples all around. How can you not see them?"
Nina stared around frantically. Surely she saw quite the number of people all scattered across the bay of the river, hidden behind trees. "Oh no! Sorry, I—" She stopped. Andrew was laughing hard. She smiled to herself.
"The look on your face when you claimed this place was priceless," Andrew teased. "Well, that was a colossal waste of time, but it was fun," he smiled.
"Really? You think so? So I'm not getting penalized?" she smiled hopefully.
"Oh no, you're definitely getting punished," Andrew laughed. "You're not getting out of that." He stared at Nina as she panicked. Well, I guess I shouldn't tell her that I've been here before, he thought.
"Let's get back, Nina," Andrew said softly. "Nighttime is almost upon us." He started walking back.
"But about the punishment, Master, you're joking, right?" she asked, trailing after him.
It was nighttime before they made it back to the manor. Nina was still pleading that Andrew not cut her paycheck. He was pretending not to listen and going about his way. They went their separate ways eventually. She went to the knight quarters.
"So I'm going to a knight academy soon," Carl sighed. "I feel bad about leaving Lia behind, but there's not enough tuition money for the both of us. Besides, according to father, she doesn't have the potential to learn the sword."
"Are you sure she'll be safe alone though?" Sarah asked. "Didn't you say she was constantly picked on by the people of your household without you there?"
"Yeah, but there's nothing I can do about it," Carl breathed deep breaths.
Sarah tucked her legs in under her sheets, holding the pea close to her face as she listened attentively to everything he said. Is it possible that what happened to Lia in the past was when Carl was in knight school? He didn't mention it back then, but was vague about it. Sarah looked at the moonless night sky from her bed.
"Carl?"
"Yeah," he responded.
"I'd like you to keep rapt attention about your twin," Sarah said softly.
" More than anything, that's what I'd like to do right now, but there's no way she could come with me to the academy," his voice was pained.
"What if there's a way?" Sarah asked slowly.
"What?"
"I mean, what if the House Rose were to sponsor your sister? Wouldn't that be great?" Sarah suggested.
"Yeah, it'll be great, but I don't feel too good about taking money from some other family," Carl said respectfully.
"But it's my family though," Sarah replied.
"Same thing. I don't feel like—"
"What if it's a loan?" Sarah interrupted him."What if you have to pay it back? Then it wouldn't be just giving you free money — you'd have to pay it back."
"If that's the case, it'll be great, but I feel like we lack the power currently to make deals like that," Carl laughed. Sarah smiled.
"When are you leaving?" she asked.
"In a month's time, I think," Carl grunted in pain.
"Is everything alright?" Sarah asked, alarmed.
"It's fine. I just hit my head on my bed post," he laughed. "I think we should end here for today. I'll contact you again when I feel it's safe. Goodnight, Sarah." The connection dropped.
"Goodnight, Carl," Sarah muttered to the silence suddenly in her room. She turned off the light, holding the pea close, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Carl looked at the moonless sky. He was sweating heavily. The training ground was disheveled and ragged with debris and broken dummies. He panted as he swung his sword. The blade hissed and cut through the air swiftly. His blonde hair reflected off the little lamp that lay by Lia, who was fast asleep on the stairs leading to the training ground. Carl stared at her for a while.
"Look after her, huh."