"What exactly were you doing in the market for them to accuse you of thievery?" Marquis Chase asked in a taut voice as soon as Carl arrived at his study.
"I don't get what you're saying, father." Carl replied, his words filled with confusion and surprise.
"You don't get what I'm saying? Really, Carl? Then how are you suppose to explain those merchants who arrived at our castle even before the sun rises? They were saying you stole some prized possession of theirs."
Carl stood poised as the marquis stared at him with deadpan eyes. In his mind, he knew exactly what the marquis was talking about. But the expression and gestures he showed instead were ones that literally screamed 'I AM INNOCENT'. Seeing those, Marquis Chase slightly leaned forward and narrowed his eyes on Carl.
"You really don't know?"
"I really don't."
Carl answered back so swiftly that the marquis had no choice but to nod in agreement. Nevertheless, his eyes still had those fierce stares of suspicion when he looked at Carl. Of course, he did not want to believe the accusation of his son being some type of a noble thief, but the marquis had always been a person to trust his intuition than the half-meant words of his own kin.
And he found it strange that his intuition right now was telling him that his son was lying directly right in front of his face.
'Let's not hastily jump to conclusions. I can try trusting him at least for now... But this gut feeling...'
The marquis debated inside his head. A part of him wanted to blindly trust Carl and kick everything about his intuitions and gut feelings right out of his head. However, when he thought of the words of the inn's owner, who went to see him so early in the morning, he could not help but feel guilty about mindlessly taking his son's side and selfishly trashing the old man on the side.
"I have no reason to keep on doubting you if you insist you did not steal anything," the marquis fixed his gaze on Carl and continued, "But just to let you know, the thing which had been stolen from the inn's owner was a treasure, given to him by someone he considered the most important person of his life."
Carl immediately inquired after hearing the last part of what the marquis was telling him.
"Most important person? His relative?"
"No. The old man, the inn's owner is an orphan, so he does not have any relative. I remember him saying it was someone who saved his life when he was still very young."
"I see." Carl vaguely commented.
"But we can rest assure now since it was not you who stole the old man's treasure, right Carl?"
Carl did not answer the marquis right away, and had the look of someone who was completely drowned in their own thoughts. It was not until the marquis called him out that he finally snapped back to reality and answered.
"Of course. And father, if there's nothing else you wish to ask me I'll be taking my leave."
"Sure. And don't forget to mark your presence during breakfast."
"I will, father." Carl replied the marquis and instantaneously left his study.
*
Carl walked into the corridors which led to the dining room of the castle. As he casually strode forward, he meticulously wondered who the 'most important person' of the inn's owner was.
'What kind of person could it be for them to give away something like that so easily?'
Of course, it was a given that it could not be someone so normal to have that kind of entity in their possession. Then was it possible if it was someone with enough power and standing not anyone could mess with?
'Someone like the master of the magic tower?'
Carl suddenly paused his steps. If this was correct, it would be no exaggeration to say that the entire Rodia kingdom was doomed. It was because the tower master was someone who held just as much power as the royal family of the kingdom.
'Am I thinking way too much that it clouded my judgement? That must be it. To top it off, we still have not even have proof that the ones who stole the relic were the Dragon Bones Inn members.'
Carl decided to give a rest to his imagination for now and continued his steps. Within no time, he reached the dining room and was almost taken aback to see that he was the first person among his family to have reached there.
"This is new." He softly muttered to himself.
The servants and workers who were standing behind quickly filled his plates as soon as he took his seat. Just when he was about to put a slice of meat into his mouth, the marchioness and Jay entered the room, looking amazed as soon as they caught sight of Carl.
"Oho. You're early today, Carl." The marchioness commented as she took her seat.
"I did not expect you to be here before us. Did something happen, brother?" Jay immediately followed.
"No, nothing of particular importance." Carl answered, his tone indifferent.
"That's strange."
Jay replied with a mischievous smirk on his face and Carl immediately faced toward him.
'What is this brat planning?' Carl had a strange feeling when he looked at Jay.
"I heard from my servants that father called you over to his study because you were accused of thievery."
Carl remained quiet at the words of Jay. On the side, the marchioness who had been quiet for a while quickly intervened on hearing the word 'thievery'.
"What are you talking about, Jay? Thievery? Please tell me that is not true. Carl?"
"No, mother, it's not true." Carl lied. "They must have accused me because I stopped at their inn when their belonging was stolen."
"Is that so?" Jay was quick to respond.
"Yes. And please don't stress yourself over something as trivial as this."
Carl faced the both of them when he said those but emphasized the word 'trivial' while looking at Jay, who flinched on hearing it.
"Well, if you say so." The marchioness said and the three of them returned back to their normal self. Carl, too, decided to immerse himself into his breakfast but just as he was about to eat his meat, the marquis made his entrance into the room.
"Seems like I'm the last one to arrive here."
"Oh no. We were just starting."
The marchioness quickly replied and the atmosphere should have been pleasant from then on if Jay had not decided to prickle on further onto their previous topic.
"We were talking about brother. About how he was accused of thievery, I mean."
'Brat! Why can't you just give up?'
Carl wanted to say his thoughts out loud but barely swallowed them inside.
"Oh that one." The marquis said. "I sent them a letter to further investigate it and to not mindlessly accuse of someone if they have no evidence."
"Thank you, father." Carl said to the marquis and turned toward Jay while continuing, "For believing me."
Carl could see Jay gritting his teeth and almost scoffed out loud. Well, if he had not been acting like such a jerk, Carl could have been a gentle and caring older brother. But Jay just have to decide to pick on Carl's bad side.
Nevertheless, the younger one was still not yet ready to give up.
"That's good to hear. Then why don't we go hunting as a celebration of you getting out of such bad position, brother?"
'What now?' Carl thought and sighed a little.
"Of course."
"Good! To the western woods it is then." Jay giggled.
'So that was his plan. This jerk.' Carl gently smiled back.
If it was the original Carl, he would have been making excuses right now since the western woods was where he was caught in the explosion. And returning there should have been quite traumatic given the things he had to experience because of the explosion. However, this was not the Carl the Silversword members were used to. And the Carl right now had no traumas regarding the western woods, or anything of sort.
"So, how is it? Are you excited? If you really don't want to, then that's okay. I really don't mind hearing excu-"
"Of course. When are we going?"
Jay had a look of surprise while Carl excitedly smiled in front of him.
"Hah! Good for you then, brother. Why don't we go for wild boars? I heard a lot of hunters have caught a sight of them quite lately. I can even organize a group of professional hunters for this."
"I can't wait." Carl mockingly answered back.