In the evening after the sun set, we walked toward to the residence…When we were in front of the residence's gate, I was amazed by how big was the residence and how extravagant was it, compared with the life of the villagers…That was why mother wanted to keep this estate.
We arrived at the front of the gate, there was four guards in front of it…While we were walking towards it, they approached us…
One of them asked, "What are you doing in here??"
Louis stepped forward and said, "We are here to check the estate and claim it back…"
They were looking at each other and seemed to hold a laugh, the man said, "Claim it back? Who are you??"
Louis pulled out the roll of paper from the royal, showed it to them, and said, "Look here, we have the paper about inheritance of the estate…Behold your new landlord…First Princess Caroline…"
Suddenly, they became nervous and worried…
I walked towards them…In front of them, I asked them, "Are all of you from this village?"
One of them answered, "Yes, we are…"
"Can you open the gate for me?"
"But…we have an order…to…not…som–"
"Do I look like that someone? Or do I look like your landlord?"
"Ye…t…we…don't…get…any…news about that…"
"JUST OPEN IT ALREADY!!!"
"But…our oder…"
"YOU DISOBEY ME, MEAN YOU DISOBEY THE KING!!"
"Right away, we..will…open…the gate…"
They opened the front gate…
We passed the front gate without any commotion…But still, my fear was they wouldn't obey the order of the paper; instead, they would obey Rudyard as their lord…We kept walking towards the front door of the estate; the front garden was so wide…
At front of the door, I looked around; there was nobody around…So we knocked the door…When I first knocked, there was no answer from the inside of the estate…Second knock, it was still same…Third knock, still same…Fourth knocked, and finally we could hear some footsteps from the inside…We were waiting until someone from inside opened the door..
A moments later, a woman opened the door…We looked at her; she wasn't his child, Florence nor his wife, Malta…I asked her,
"Is Sir Rudyard at home?"
Louis and everyone were surprised by me when I said, Sir Rudyard…The woman answered, "Master isn't at home, at the moment…" She tried to close the door, but I stopped the door with my feet…
I said to her, "Apologise, but tell your master to come to meet me…and let us come in…"
"I am so sorry, but who am I talking to? So I can tell to my master…"
"You are talking with the First Princess of Aushtage, Caroline…Let us come in, and tell your master to meet with me right now!!"
"Deeply Apologise, your highness…I don't know if you are the princess…"
"Just let us in…"
She immediately opened the door and let us in…I went inside, and the interior was beyond my imagination, I never imagined there was a place so glamorous beside the palace when the people were struggling…
The woman led us to the living room, but to get there, we needed to walk around the house, How big was this place…Arriving in the living room, again, everything was extravagant; there were two entrance of the living room…This was not for the baron…I took a seat on the couch while everyone was standing behind me, and the woman left us to tell her master…
…
We were waiting…kept waiting…but there was no one to come to meet us…
…
The situation became more weirder…after waiting for some times, there was no one to come to meet us…Louis tapped my shoulder from behind and said, "We need to leave this house immediately, your highness…"
Hearing that, Aldea was irritated and mostly mad. She said to Louis, "We are here, why do we need to leave from here??"
Louis said, "This situation is unusual; the safety of her highness is important…we need to leave from here…"
They were arguing each other in behind me about whether to stay or leave from here…I said to intervene if their argument became longer, "We will stay…"
Louis kept saying and begging to me to leave the house immediately…
I said, "If he dare to lift a single finger on me…surely they know who mess with…"
Darryl intervened and said to Louis, "Our duty is to protect her highness; if her highness wants to stay, we need to stay and protect her…"
Elpis joined to say, "~my~ I will stay with her highness in this matter…"
With flat tone, Louis said, "*sigh* Alright then…" And he stepped back from me and went back to his position beside everyone…
…
A few moments later, a man was coming to the living room…he was not the one we expected; he wasn't Rudyard…So we didn't know who was he…He took a seat in front of me without any introduction or say anything…I looked at him; his appearance was scary in my view; he had some scars on his face; and his physical build was like that of Darryl, so he must be in the army.
Because he didn't say anything, neither I…I looked at Louis, waved him and slightly pointed at him to signal Louis to say something to him…Louis walked forward right behind me and said to him,
"May you introduce yourself??"
The man just stared at Louis and me…A few moments later, he finally opened his mouth and asked, "Are you really the princess of this kingdom?? What I have seen in front of me is just a cheeky and pampered girl…"
Hearing that made me not want to say anything until he did a proper introduction.
Louis said it to him again, "May you introduce yourself??"
The man just leaned back on the couch and sat relaxedly. He said, "Do I need to introduce myself??"
Louis said, "Yes, you are; you are right now in front of her highness…"
Out of the blue, Darryl called Louis, "LOUIS!!"
I looked at them; they were looking at the entrance of the living room…and immediately Louis and Aldea jumped into front of me, and everyone was surrounding me; Darryl and Elpis were right behind me, and Aldea and Louis were right in front of me.
Louis immediately shouted to the man, "YOU!!!"
I asked them, "What is happening??"
The man was laughing and said to me, "Hahahahaha…You are so clueless, even you have amazing escorts…Still, you don't know what is happening here…Use your ears!!! And listen…"
I tried to listen what was happening here…I tried to focus…And immediately, I could hear it…It was the sound of footsteps, A lot of footsteps…They were coming to us…
I said to him, "Don't tell me!! You…" I was looking at everyone's faces; they were so worried and concerned because, from what I heard, there were a lot of footsteps, which meant we were outnumbered here…
Before they were coming, I said to him, "YOU KNOW THIS IS A TREASON, RIGHT??"
He was just sitting relaxedly and said, "Treason?? I just followed an order…"
"AN ORDER??"
"Yes…"
"IS THAT FROM RUDYARD? IF it is from him, you know my order is higher than him…"
"NO…We don't follow order from him…but we follow order from much higher than him…even it's higher than your order…"
"WHAT? YOU KNOW THAT I AM THE LANDLORD OF THIS MANOR…"
"Yes, I know, you are the first princess and the baron of this manor…but you know what…I and my army aren't the armies of manor…So we don't follow order from you or are obligated to you…"
Immediately, both of the entrance of the living room were surrounded by the armies, but they wore some mail…
Louis said to me, "Your highness, they are not from the levies of this manor; they are knights…"
I tried to calm myself about this situation, I kept sitting, looked at the man, and said, "DON'T TELL ME, THE PALACE ORDERS YOU…"
He stood up and said, "I can't say the one who ordered us, but…your highness, you know that, there is a letter, a disturbing one about this manor, especially the estate…"
Was he talking about the parents of Aalis and Ame?
He continued, "The laird of this estate are missing, the one who appointed by her majesty, queen…Is that weird, your highness??"
I said, "That's why I came here to investigate that…"
"Really?? I am so happy that you gave aid on this matter…But–"
"But??"
"There is a witness, your highness..And he told us, it was you…"
I was surprised and shocked. I asked him, "Who is this witness??"
"I can't tell you…he is under my protection…Again, there is something I want to show you…"
Suddenly, he snapped his finger, and I saw a movement around the entrance of the living on my right…I was surprised and shocked—not just me, I felt anger from Aldea…They brought Zoe, who was full of bruises over her body,and her clothes were torn apart. They just threw her to the living room, she was just lying on the ground helplessly…Aldea immediately ran towards Zoe, and checked her…
I held my anger towards the man in front of me; surely this was my first time seeing a person full of bruises, helpless, and unconscious in my entire life, but I said, "WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW? TELL ME!!"