The smell of blood at the front door of a noble house? Winsor couldn't help but look at the servants that had opened the door. They all looked as though they had been cleaning for at least an hour before their arrival, meaning whatever had happened wasn't small. There were no stains, but this was enough to put him on edge due to the doctor's warning.
POV the Butler
As soon as he entered, the scent of blood made his nose wrinkle in disgust. He had told the servants to clean it up before the lord arrived since they were coming with another guest.
"Ruford, what's the meaning of this," Earl Grant asked with a cold look on his face. Well, it was only cold when one just looked at it, but if you saw his eyes, you could see pure rage.
"My lord, the problem ones were more than we thought, so wanderers simply dealt with them and took them," Ruford explained with a sweat running down his back. He knew that this was just an excuse since it happened over 30 minutes ago.
"Get it cleaned, now. Prepare what we talked about while on the carriage, too." Earl Grant said to Ruford while turning around to face Winsor.
"Anyway, its embarrassing for a noble's house to be like this, there was an incident with some intruders, please follow me" he said as he led the boy who hesitantly followed him deeper into the house.
The two continued one walking with the boy occasionally turning to see the entrance clearly having noticed the smell. As soon as they were out of sight, the butler, Ruford, turned with an imperceptible look on his face.
Clap*
"You couldn't even do some cleaning?" Ruford asked to no one in particular as he slowly turned towards the servants. His face was calm, but you could tell by his voice that he was anything but calm.
"W-we were cleaning the whole time. Those wanderers were very ... brutal with their methods," said one of the maids. She was cowering while looking down at the floor, knowing with terror what the butler did to those he wasn't happy with.
"Meet me in the cells below the manor after lights out, all of you," Ruford said with an annoyed look on his face. "We don't tolerate laziness and disobedience. You should know that by now,". Internally, he was quite happy he could release some stress on these few servants since there had been many problems that popped up recently. There was no servant in the manor who didn't fear him due to what he did to those who did even the slightest error.
They couldn't even quit their jobs since he would usually hire someone to take care of them to make sure no leaks or rumors were let out into the city.
"Yes... sir," the maid said with all the colour draining from her face. She was scared and dreading what was to come, but she was at least relieved it wasn't the lord that was punishing her.
Sigh* Now that the servants were back to cleaning, he proceeded to the manors' storage and brought out a strange looking crystal and tin of powder. These were the items the Earl had ordered him to prepare based on their conversation in the carriage.
While escorting the boy, Ruford had realised that he hadn't yet awakened and couldn't use mana or even sense it. He let his lord know of this, and the reaction he received was surprising. He told him to prepare for the awakening ritual when he reached the manor. Usually, his lord would just hand him over to the wanderers or just send him to train as a city guard, but this was unexpected.
When he asked the lord why, he simply pointed at him and said, "Look at him, he's quite strange, he has been calm all this time and his race is peculiar."
Ruford was confused by this and hesitantly asked, "Peculiar? Isn't he just a half human half elf, there are many of them in the city, some of the other victims were also half elves."
"Hmph," Earl Grant let out a light chuckle. "He does look like one, but he's different. He is a half elf but not a half human. I need to test the serum the wanderers gave us, and I can sense his second race has a lot of vitality. If he can survive it, then ..." the Earl said while an evil smirk crept up onto his face. Ruford felt a shiver run down his spine as he remembered that smile.
"Well, if he does survive the Earl's crazy magic experiment, he should become really strong, even though the lord will never let him go." Ruford said with a defeated sigh as he continued with his tasks.
POV Winsor
He nervously followed the Earl deeper into the mansion as he noticed how large the place really was. He was still barefoot, but the cold tiled floor was much better than the stone one of the town infirmary.
"We're here," the Earl said while entering a room guarded by a one man. He was wearing light armour with just an iron breastplate and greaves with everything else being leather armour. He had a longsword at his side, and he looked to be quite experienced with it. He knew that if anything went wrong, he wouldn't be able to escape, let alone fight back. He took a gulp and continued into the room, trying not to stare too hard at the guard.
As they entered and sat down, a heavy air suddenly surrounded him. It wasn't a figure of speech since he actually found it a bit more difficult to breathe, and he was sensing an intense aura coming off the Earl.
"So, as you know, my eldest son caused the death of your family and neighbours, which I am truly sorry for." the Earl said while sitting back in his chair with no sense of remorse what so ever.
"But as you may also know, I am a mage and I am very wealthy even for noble for my ranking, I am going to offer you two things," the Earl said as he shifted in his seat forward into a pose that was more imposing.
Winsor could feel a lump form in his throat as the pressure he was feeling grew even more. He was a bit surprised and happy that the Earl was a mage since that meant that there actually was magic in this world. Though that joy came with fear since he now knew he absolutely couldn't force his way out of this situation now.
"The first is that I offer to give you is power. As a commoner, you may not know this, but there are many magical ways to improve yourself, and you can sign up as a mercenary after you are strong enough. Though, you'll have to work and obey me for a while as I ... monitor your condition." said while staring at the boy in front of him.
"Your second choice is that I send you back with some money, don't worry, it'll be quite the sum," the Earl added but not as enthusiastically.
It seemed like there was a choice they clearly wanted Winsor to take, but he really could use the money. He was scared of getting robbed, but he could simply tell the Earl to give him in small instalments and maybe find him a family that'd care for him.
"I'm a busy man, I'll need your answer now since my time is very valuable," the Earl said while increasing the pressure he was applying to Winsor.