My heart is beating really fast and I think my body's temperature is rising dramatically. He's still holding my hand and seemed to not have any intention of letting it go. I was put back to reality when Yuri grabbed my hand from his. "My miss was delighted to meet you sir, however, she really needs to rest. And by that, please excuse us." She coldly said and guided me off to the guest room of the house, Haifa following us from behind.
When we entered the room, Haifa bowed and apologized for the sudden actions of the man— Mr. Zoldago— and asked if we would like her to bring us food, since she heard that I am too tired to join them. I simply shake my head to tell that it's okay to not to. After that, she left Yuri and me alone. I plopped down to the bed and smiled at Yuri. "You're a life saver down there." I said, praising her for what she did. "I did promised to protect you." She replied with a bow. However, she saw a questioning look flash from her face. It was just a split second, but enough for me to see.
'She might be curious of Mr. Zoldago's identity.' I thought to myself since it is rare for me to react like that as I was taught to stand dignified and confident in front of everyone. Yuri might've acted like that because she noticed that I'm getting nervous in front of the man since I only act like that whenever in shock, fear or anxious. I saw her about to open her mouth, probably to ask question but I preceded her.
"That, as you've heard, is Marcus Zoldago— or Marcus Timothy Zoldago. He is known far and wide because he's a billionaire businessman who have built countless businesses everywhere— especially in our kingdom. He is rumored to support and be friends with the Crown Prince, however, no proof has been presented. Right now, aside from being a business man, his personality is still shrouded in darkness." I explained while Yuri started to unpack my things, meanwhile, I'm removing this ridiculous wig– it's starting to itch.
After some time, I decided to go down and proceed my tour with Haifa since its past noon and it's not too hot outside. Of course, we have to re do my disguise and I have Yuri to go down first to check if Mr. Zoldago is still there. Luckily, Haifa said he left just after lunch, saying he has some work to do. I just brushed it off and asked her if we can continue our tour. "Yes, milady! I'm gladder to do so!" Haifa said enthusiastically, jumping up and down in excitement. Her father, who's really old and can no longer walk well, sighed to the acts of her daughter.
When we got outside, a lot of people— especially girls— was looming through the streets, trying to take a peek inside the house. 'They're probably curious about me.' So I just smiled at them as Haifa shoo them off. The two guards who accompanied us a while ago was waiting at the porch of the house, ready to escort us again. Through our walk, I can still hear house wives and ladies murmuring and then looking at me in which I just replied with a smile while Yuri and Haifa scornfully looked at them. Yet, during our walk, I can still see and sense some suspicious men looking and peeking from the trees, their backs and silently whispering to each other.
'It seems like they are not hiding the fact that they are rebels from the way they move and talk and such, to a foreigner— I mean— a pretending foreigner like me.' I chuckled to myself, thinking of how stupid they act. The rebels back on Earth is cleverer than them and yet here they are, bluntly showing their cards to me. I won't be surprised if I quickly found out their ring leader and also found a way to stop them. "You seem to be very happy miss." Haifa curiously said, she might've seen me chuckling because of the rebels.
I just swept what she said and told to continue the tour. After a long walk from the crop fields and many houses, we finally arrived to my real goal: to see the dam that my tyrant grandfather built. When I scanned the documents, I saw many reports and complaints pertaining on how the dam badly affects their crop fields. The dam looks old, even though it's just built almost 150 years ago, but you can see the stones developing moss everywhere— possibly from the leaks— and you can really tell that it's poorly built and the materials used were not the very best. It looks like one wrong move to this dam and it will fall— positively flooding the whole district: flooding and destroying the fields, destroying houses and might actually take some lives.
Just the thought of it makes my heart break and my stomach twist. As their duchess, I promised to make their lives better—'and also for me to finally live carefree of this things'; enough of that, let's go outside of our train thoughts. When I got back to myself, I saw Haifa's sad expression. It must be because of the dam. I didn't need to ask because she started to talk herself. "The duchess' grandfather built this dam, promising us a better water system and supply to our crop fields, yet what it did was the opposite. I don't know if the workers are just plain stupid or it's the duchess' grandfather but the dam was poorly built with poor materials and as you can see, it might break any minute." Melancholy was evident in her voice, and yet all I can is none and only think that 'I know'.
She continued to tell me that the dam was constructed with only one little water gate for the water to flow out— not enough to supply the whole lands— that's why the product quantity's decreasing every year. Of course, they submitted complaints to the ducal house, it even reached the ears of the king and queen but, nothing happened to their reports— not even a single response.
"The miss might've thought if we didn't asked for help from the architects, the engineers, the workers or anyone who can help us. Yes, we did. But by the time the dam was built, rebels also raised up and up until now— they're holding those who can help us." Haifa's voiced decreased in volume since some rebels are nearby. They might hear her and start a chaos. She whispered to me, "I heard, that they're blocking our complaints from reaching the royal palace and they're making things worse so that when they present it to the king, it will be a sure one to overthrow and remove the duchess to her royal status, and then they will appoint someone who will favor them more than the people of the duchy."
"Where did you heard this?" I asked curiously. She couldn't just possibly heard it somewhere. I know I said that the rebels were stupid but I don't think they're dumb enough to talk about their plan in open air. She was taken aback by my question. She started fidgeting and kicking her right foot back and forth. Her eyes were darting everywhere but no to me. She swallowed deeply many times before speaking. Then Yuri barged in our conversation.
"Don't even think of lying. My miss doesn't like people like that. And don't even try to defend yourself that you're not going to lie. Your movements just now indicated that you're formulating a lie in your head." Yuri coldly said, her eyes in slit as if she's really threatening her in front of the village guards who seems to have... no care at all.
"You're one of them aren't you?" I said with a smile, completely calm and collected. Her face painted in shock, her mouth wide open covered by her left hand, her eyes so wide it might as well pop out. She can't help but put her other hand to her heart as if to calm herself down from the shock. "Shall we talk about this over a cup of tea? I think I've seen enough." I asked again, my smile growing wider like a Cheshire Cat. Haifa was still in shock following us.
We sat on one of the tables nearby a cafe. I proceeded to tell her on how we knew that she��s a part of the rebels. A little trivia, during my journalist days and I'm writing about rebels; I always notice that they have something: a tattoo or an emblem that signifies them as rebels. I laughed at them back then because, even though they're good at erasing their footsteps, they still left some evidences that could bring them down.
And who knew, it would also apply to this world. Upon entering, I saw those suspicious men wearing the same necklace. And Haifa also wears the same. That's when the first suspicion started. The second was when albeit the duchess' guest was vulnerable, no one tried to do something bad to me. Rebels are known to have such bravery that they're ready to face death for their beliefs and grounds. The fact that they did nothing would be because they know they have someone from them who's already by my side. And her shocked expression gave it away so... yeah.
After I told that to her, her face was painted with sad eyes and tightly closed lips. Yuri coldly and scornfully looked at her while I sip a cup of very delicious Earl Grey tea. "However, despite all those, I assume you also have a hidden agenda for you to join them right? An agenda different from them I suppose." I said with an interrogative tone. She raised her head and looked at me with watery eyes. She's clearly trying to hold back her tears. Good thing, the guards left us alone and we sat to the most isolated table— no one can see her cry here. "Ple— Please milady, please don't tell this to the duchess. My family isn't involved in this, they don't know this a— and I did this on my own vocation. What you said is true, I have an agenda of my own." She managed to say between sobs and sniffles. "Tell me."
"My parents experienced the tyranny of the late duke, however, they knew that hope will come and his evil reign will end. And it happened, after the late duke disappeared, the Fortess couple— the duchess' parents— ruled the Fortess dukedom with compassion and tried to bring it its former glory. My parents met them and knew that they're different from that tyrant, so they supported them. They even encouraged the others to support the Fortess couple and their daughter— the current duchess. However, when the Fortess couple died, everyone became devastated. They knew that the duchess was close to her grandfather, that's why they feared that the duchess will rule this land just like her grandfather. I joined the rebels in hopes that I could be of help to the duchess by sabotaging their plans. I decided to infiltrate their circles and somehow free their hostages— especially the architects that were involved in building the dam. I hope that that way, I can help the duchess solve some problem and ease the burden in her shoulders even just a bit."
"Why do you want to help her? What if she might really be like her grandfather?"
"I met the duchess once, it's when her parents visited our district. I was in the forest that time and had injured my leg due to a fall from the tree. She came to me and said that she heard me crying. She saw my injury and concluded that I mustn't walk so she gave me a piggy back ride until we saw our parents. When she did that, I decided that she's a good person. Nowadays, no noble would bow that low just to help a commoner like me to help me, but not here. She's willing to get her clothes and hands dirty just to help me. She's willing to endure the exhaustion so that I would get treated immediately." She explained to me on which I felt a hand caressed my heart.
I can't help myself but smile at her. I'm so glad that someone like her exists in this world. I put down my cup of tea and looked at her softly. I said to her that she doesn't need to worry about this and that I thank her for her efforts. "I hope that the duchess would understand." She said, still gloomy. She's still worried that I might punish her for being part of the rebels.
I sighed at the look on her face and just said, "I'm sure she will." As I pull a strand of my real hair for her to see. And when she did, she's shocked again, her voice started trembling. A platinum blonde hair is one of the traits only existent to the Fortess blood. In fact, we're the only family who possesses a platinum blonde hair and violet eyes. Although, I'm wearing contact lenses right now.
Haifa was still shocked and I placed one finger to my lips signaling her to shush. She might as well shout that I'm the duchess due to her reaction. That won't be good for me. I thought that this is too much revelation for her so I decided to sleep even though it's not dinner time yet. I left Haifa downstairs while me and Yuri headed to our room. Several minutes later, we heard a knock from the door. Yuri said it must be Haifa's mother notifying us that it's dinner time, however when the door opened, Haifa came in with a tray of food in hand.
Yuri let her in and put the tray down then quickly plopped down to my knees and started crying silently as possible again. She was saying things I can't understand because of her continuous sobs and sniffles. It took a while for her to calm down and by that time, Yuri and I were finished eating the food she brought. "Are you calm now?" I asked softly to a snot and tear wiping Haifa. "Ye— Yes, your highness. I'm really sorry about—"
"You don't have to be sorry, I understand. You already explained the situation to me, and I'm grateful for your efforts. However, please keep this as a secret okay? We can't have rebels discover me or all of your efforts will be in vain." I told Haifa to be careful when talking to others. Her mouth doesn't have a break so it will be a huge problem if she ever told anyone about me. The girl nodded cheerfully and brought our dishes down stairs.
Once she's gone, I used the whistle that Drew gave me when we're kids. It's a whistle used to call a messenger dove. Yuri opened the windows and as if on cue, a dove flew in with a lasso in its left leg. I grabbed a small parchment and a pen. After writing down my message, I tied it to the bird and let it fly through the night sky, ready to deliver my message to my cousin.
It's about bedtime and Haifa entered our room again with new sets of bed sheets. After telling her that we'll be leaving tomorrow, she cried again a puddle of tears. This time, she calmed down quickly when I told her something.
"Listen well Haifa. I have something for you to do."
"Yes, your highness. Anything for you." She eagerly replied.
"Tomorrow, after we left, I need you to spread this to everyone. Make it sound like a rumor and then..."
Once I was finished telling her some of my plan, she said goodnight to us and headed to her own bedroom. I laid to my bed and fell asleep.
The next day, Nikos arrived with the carriage on the district entrance. He was looking at Yuri disdainfully while the latter was wearing a triumphant smile. I don't know what's with these two but I'm too occupied to bother. Once we left the district, my plan will commence. It won't be an easy one but that's one step towards my ultimate goal.