14 days later, Gregory departed for the Adventurer Guild building in the Central District to register as an adventurer and Annabelle departed for Oldtown to join the merchants guild.
Meanwhile, Yoshi sat in his room with a piece of charcoal, creating a drawing of a pencil. Once he was done with the sketch, he used 'Identify' to acquire the design and then with the wood in his inventory, created a few pencils.
He repeated the process for a wooden box with wheels and a handle.
"Alright, I'm almost ready for the long trip," he said to himself.
On the sixteenth day, Yoshi packed his things and got ready for his journey when someone burst into his room nearly breaking the door off its hinges.
It was the quiet servant girl. She had always been reserved and distant. Even though Remus didn't know what the emergency was, he already felt incredibly uneasy.
"Master Remus, your father has been wounded," she said. "Your presence is requested in his chambers."
Yoshi ran through the hallways until he reached his father's room.
His father lay on his bed grimacing in pain while his wife held his hand. He had his clothes ripped away to expose his torso and a bloody white cloth covered his right side.
"What happened?" Yoshi asked.
"Bandits," he replied through gritted teeth.
Attending to him was Maester Leo who was attempting to stop the bleeding.
"Sorry to see you again under these conditions Master Remus but I have to inform you that there is damage to your father's internal organs," Maester Leo said. "If he survives, it would take at least 3 months to recover if not longer."
"Come here, Remus," his father said. "Listen, I don't have much time."
"I won't sugarcoat my words. You're not the son that I wished I had and I never even considered you my heir for a moment but you're all that I have right now," he said. "I don't have proof but those weren't just bandits, they work for Duke Sylvanus of the Eastlands."
"Why would he do this to you?" Remus asked.
"The Southlands haven't been doing too well lately and we owe a lot of money to the Banking guild," his father said. "If we don't have a great harvest this season, we may lose our duchy to the Eastlanders."
"What can I do?"
"I need you to take charge of everything and step into my role as the Duke of the Southlands while I recover," he said. "I'm counting on you."
"I won't let you down."
Maester Leo then sedated him and performed some healing magic on him. The fate of the duke remained unknown.
***
At dawn the next day, Remus came to check on his father and found the red-haired servant girl watching over him from a crack in the door. She bit her lip and seemed oblivious to his presence. Remus interpreted it as a veiled concern.
"What is your name?" Remus asked.
The question knocked the servant girl out of her trance. She had been staring intently at the injured Duke and his wife.
"Andrea," she replied in a surprisingly small voice.
"Andrea, there's nothing we can do for his health except pray to the Seven," Remus said. "If you really want to do something for him, come and help me get his affairs back on track."
Remus didn't know why he was asking for her help. He just had a feeling that she was more capable than she looked.
"Of course, my lord," she replied with a small bow.
"Where is my father's office?" Remus asked.
"Follow me," she said. "I will lead you there."
She led him to an office in the South wing of the mansion. The room was chaotic and in utter disarray. There were books and scrolls strewn about and nothing was where it was supposed to be. Remus glanced at one of the open scrolls but couldn't decipher the meaning of what was written on it.
He picked up the scroll and stared at it until the servant girl took it from his hands, flipped it upside down and handed it back to him.
"Can you read?" Remus asked.
She looked around cautiously before nodding.
"What's the matter?" Remus asked. "Is that such a bad thing?"
"It's looked down upon to have a servant that can read, Master Remus," Andrea said. "There's always the fear that we might take off with valuable documents."
"Well, I value someone that can read," Remus said. "I need you to organize this mess for me. Can I count on you to do that?"
Andrea nodded again.
"Who is my father's, right-hand man?"
"That will be Julius," she said. "You can usually find him near the stables. He walks with a limp."
Yoshi made his way outside and located the stables where there was a strong smell of urine. There, he found a hunched older wearing a straw hat and walking around with a limp.
"Are you Julius?" Remus asked.
"Depends on who's asking," he replied with a thick accent.
"I am Yosh-- Remus," he said. "Lord Aquitane's second son."
"Oh, you mean Lucian," he said. "Terrible, what happened to him. So what do you want, Squirt?"
"He put me in charge of things while he's recuperating," Remus replied.
"That's risky," he said. "So what do you want with me?"
"I need some information," Remus said. "What's the state of affairs of the Southlands?"
"Fucked is the state of affairs," the older man said. "We have a lot of forests but everybody in the Kingdom has forests and so nobody wants to buy our wood. The only fertile land we have, we farmed the life out of it and now it's depleted. We don't have nearly enough manure to cover the whole thing."
"So all we need is to find a way to replenish, plant and harvest," Remus said.
"I wish that was the only problem," Julius said. "Once we start growing things, the bandits always come to take it all away."
"Why can't we stop them?" Remus asked.
"This is beyond me. I'm just a farmer,: Julius said, "You'll have to ask Ed, he's the Captain of your dad's men."
"Where can I find him?"
"At the gatehouse on the edge of the property."
Remus went to the gate and was pointed to the Captain.
"What can I do for you, Master Remus," Ed said.
"What can we do about the bandits?" Remus asked.
"I'm ashamed to admit this but there's nothing that we can do," he said. "This is the reason."
Captain Ed pulled out an iron sword and it looked worn and on the verge of falling apart.
"Look at this," Ed said. "The reason we're so sure that Duke Sylvanus is behind the bandits is that their weapons look sharp and brand new. We don't stand a chance unless we can get some new weapons."
"Why don't we buy new weapons?"
"We can't afford to, my lord," Ed said. "The previous year's harvest wasn't kind to us."
"Alright, thank you for your honesty," Remus said. "At dawn tomorrow come along with Julius. I will have a plan ready."