We were sitting for dinner. Baron Joahann at the head and on his right sat his wife and daughters, on the left Ares and the me, unfortunately.
A round table meant his youngest daughter sat beside me, she chattered my ear off and we were hardly done with the soups!
"Ah yes! Your Highness Ares, I'd like to extend my congratulations and best wishes for your engagement with Lady Helen."
"Of course!" his wife- Baroness Dellen added, "I met Lady Helen once, we bumped into each other and her mother when I was in the capital a few years back. Sweet little girl."
"You think everyone is sweet Mother." Lady Hale- their eldest commented teasingly. We all chuckled at that.
"Thank you, Baron, and Baroness. I'm sure Helen would be happy to hear you say that about her." Ares smiled, "What about your daughters? Any suitors they seem fond off?"
"I'm afraid not Your Highness, Hale doesn't seem to find marriage… pleasing." Baron replied.
"I don't fancy being tied down yet, Your Highness. I like being free and doing what I won't."
"I'm sure you will find a man who would like to accompany you and whose company you will enjoy, My Lady" I said as I looked towards her.
"I hope that's soon enough, Your Highness!" Baroness Dellen ended,
"And what about you, My Lady?" I asked their youngest- Iris, I noticed she loved having all the attention on her as much as possible, so naturally she was happy everyone turned to her.
"I don't have anyone either Your Highness. She replied shyly, almost.
"Well, that is a surprise. I'm sure you have a long line of suitors waiting for a chance." I said back.
She just giggled a little and smiled shyly.
Dinner went on, conversations changed every two minutes. Until everyone decided they had wasted enough time and that it was time to sleep.
The next morning came almost too fast for my liking, breakfast was a fast affair. Less gossip and trying to catch up, more business and eating. "What are you plans during Your Highnesses?" that was the big question, I did think about it last night and during the journey before I thought, instead of planning why not just go along with it.
"We have work to finish Baron Joahann, we should be quite busy since I would like to finish this all before, we leave." Ares replied, We… I wonder what he has planned.
"I see, and of course I understand. I only ask for a bit of your time tomorrow during the evening tea time-"
"We wanted to have a small picnic Your Highnesses!" Iris quickly said excitedly.
"Iris" Baroness Dellen warned lowly.
"I apologize, as you can see my daughters are quite excited for it."
"Of course, Baron Joahann" I replied, "I'm sure we would enjoy the picnic ourselves after doing all the paper work and other things all day."
"Work has never been and never will be eternal joy Your Highness." Baroness Dellen stated. To which everyone agreed without a hesitant bone.
I followed Ares to the study, once breakfast was over. "What do you need me for? I questioned.
"Secret investigation, you and Lark." He replied lowly
"Was Justin supposed to investigate this originally?"
"Yes. All the information I have." He handed some papers to me. I looked through them, the investigation was about illegal slave trade and slave auctions. The black market seems to have reached in deep n Simras. Cases of missing people have increased, on the border of being unnoticeable to normal civilians that is… Most cases seem to be from the slums, and nothing can ever be certain there in usual cases.
Hmm, it is not something that's impossible but investigating will be difficult. We both turned as we heard the door open, Justin and Lark walked in together, "Good Morning Your Highnesses." They greeted.
"Justin, they will investigate."
He nodded and answered, "Yes, Your Highness. That will be much easier on us. We can finish everything else."
Lark came towards me when I waved the papers in my hand, he looked through them as well. "I guess we could help you out with this while I look around Simras." I said teasingly, he replied with a small smile before going around the table and began looking through the documents. "Before you start give me the documents to one of your projects, I'll inspect that as I look around." He nodded before looking through the projects he had to inspect. I hope anyone following us or keeping an eye on us will give up on me when I just look around the city, but just in case, having a good cover up wouldn't hurt.
He handed me some for papers after a minute. "Rebuilding of an old street." He supplied. I looked through it, an old street that wasn't earning much and structures were too old has been rebuilt, but a part of the slum area was added in. Slowly decreasing the gap between the poor and giving those in slums employment. A long term project.
"Alright, I'll see you at the picnic then." With that I walked out Lark not far behind.
"We don't have much to work on to conduct a proper investigation. Not enough information, little proof and basically no evidence." Lark commented.
"We're going to gather more information rather than solve this Lark. If we can during our stay here but, I doubt that we will." Information is vital and Ares doesn't have enough, so we need to search for something he can use. It may not be solved right away, but the more we know the closer we are to the truth and the closer we are to catching the leaders.
We walked through the city's markets as we made our way to the street that's been rebuilt- Sans.
The markets were crowded, noisy and very colorful. It was a beautifully busy place. I think I could find almost everything here, with the number of stores and stalls around. Eventually, we reached Sans Street; it wasn't as busy as the other places, all spaces not rented out as yet and the slums being so near was probably another thing. Only a few seemed brave enough to actually come, many kept giving this side curious glances and some I spotted with slight disgust.
"Well then, lets get our work done. And then we can simply enjoy ourselves."
"Yes, Your Highness, I didn't see anyone follow us here or monitor us for that matter."
"They don't need to follow us to know of our activities Lark. Be careful, it might be dangerous." I said as we walked closer to the new buildings."