We reached the city in the afternoon. Students going about, vendors shouting their wares, people just being people; same as always.
I didn't have a home anymore but, honestly… this felt like the closest thing to home. I wonder how far Lin was right now. Maybe crossing some damn forest? Maybe settling down in a foreign country? Or who knows, maybe she became a pirate and was now sailing the seas with Den. Yeah, probably not.
Maybe I'll write her an early letter.
"My lord, we've arrived."
"Yeah, I noticed," I said.
Our house was still at least half an hour away so I just watched the scenery slowly change from somewhat fancy to somewhat rundown. It wasn't gradual. One moment everything was fine, the next moment, it wasn't. Houses all of a sudden became black and barely standing. The alleyways dirty as fuck, the people, lacking of clothes and of the similar vein.
I never liked dirty places. Kind of why I couldn't get to like this place either. I understood it wasn't these people's fault they were like this. Okay, maybe some of them were at fault. But at the end of the day, I couldn't really blame them. No one could really.
We arrived at our rundown house and the driver excused himself. Meanwhile… I forgot we had someone else with us. Namely- "Hmm… amazing," he said.
The fuck?
"You think?" I mumbled.
"Yes. No one would be wiser to think that such a fearsome family would live here," the knight said. "Although I've been instructed to be with you all the time, please excuse me for tonight. I'm aware you'd like to spend some time with your family in private. I will escort you to the academy tomorrow and guard you at all times."
But you're supposed to be protecting me from 'my own' family you dolt! "Of course, of course."
But it was better this way. At least this guy wouldn't come into the house and be hella disillusioned. No, I think he'd just misunderstand the whole thing anyway. A bit thickheaded, huh?
I thought him to be sharp and attentive but maybe he wasn't.
"I'M HOME!!!" Shia yelled at the top of her lungs. Kids, rushed out to greet her.
"Welcome back!"
Some of them approached me too but they were kind of acting all meek.
"Yo kids, I'm back," I said. I still didn't remember their names to be frank.
Some of them were older than me, so maybe calling them kids wasn't the best idea?
"Welcome…back." They were fidgeting and stuff, like they were afraid or something. That's how a five-year-old should be!
Well, that wasn't good. But, anyway, someone else came out of the house. Namely, Barack senior. "Well, come on in. Chamille will be back soon. But we do have some snacks you can chew on in the meanwhile."
I was definitely not looking forward to this conversation but we moved inside. Sibrian had a little chat with Barack senior and although his expression didn't change for a second, he did glance at me a couple of times and I could have sworn I felt like my life had ended just then and there.
Just as he promised, Barack senior gave us some snacks. Namely, jerky. He was chewing on them too. He didn't give any to the kids since he didn't want the kids to have bad habits, or so he said.
"So, magical elixirs."
"Yeah."
"Where did you get them?"
Straight to the point I see. "I fell through the floor of a cave. Not sure if you heard but the pond I fell in, was purely made of the stuff."
"You could 'fall' again?"
"I don't think that's possible. Den tried on multiple occasions."
"I don't distrust Denkar's judgment but it strikes me odd how he forgot to mention you carrying elixirs to me."
"Odd indeed."
"So, you promised all the elixirs to the duke?"
"Yes."
"Hmm… for how much if I may ask? Oh, and congratulations on becoming a Baron."
"Well, you'll have to ask your daughter. She's the one who handled the negotiations."
Shia almost jerked when she heard that. Her face went from nonchalant to actually concerned for once. So she could make that face too….
She gulped a couple of times, downed half a glass of milk and smiled. "I mean, I felt like extorting him a little."
"How much dear?"
"Five Stellers…"
"Hmm… not bad. I could have sold them for fifty, at least," He shrugged. "So, the money isn't with us I'd assume," the man stared at me, he was utterly disappointed.
"No," we said in unison.
"Very well…" he didn't say anything else. I wished he had. I wished he'd curse me and throw me out of the family. I wished he'd at least say he was going to kill me.
That way… I would have known to at least prepare for the worst.
But he didn't.
Instead, there was just silence. And Shia's jerky chewing sound. God damn it dear sister, read the fucking room.
Sometime later Mrs Ayala came in. She was in a good mood, humming and all that as she cooked. Meanwhile, we three just sat in fucking silence. The air was so heavy, I could literally suffocate.
"Shia handled all the negotiations, you said," He eventually said.
Shia again jerked and quickly gobbled down the jerky with the rest of the milk. She nodded once.
Barack senior sighed once, patted her daughter and- "Next time you do that, I'll kill you," he whispered. He was patting his daughter but he was staring at me….
Wow… he sure was talking to me, but from Shia's perspective, he was definitely talking to her. Wouldn't she be sad or-
The fuck you're smiling for? Shia was actually happy!
"What's going on?" Alayla said, dropping a big pot on the table. It steamed. Smelled good.
"Papa said he's going to kill me the next time," I hadn't seen Shia smile like that in a long, long while.
Alayla grumbled. "Dear, she's getting older, not younger. Could you stop that."
Sharmon didn't say a word. He was just sitting there, sometime staring at me, sometime at his daughter. He was disappointed and my days were rui- numbered.
Well, should have seen this coming, that's for sure.
The next morning, I headed to the academy. I was unharmed and so far, the Baracks hadn't made any real attempt at my life. I wasn't sure how long that would last though.
NO, they'll probably not try to kill me before I grow up. One of the conditions for me to receive money later was for me to grow up to be an adult first. The duke was still going to provide me with enough money to live and stuff but the bulk of it was going to be paid only when I wasn't a kid.
The Baracks were helping me a ton and if it wasn't for them, I'd be on the streets right about now, or maybe even worse. Maybe I 'should' give them some money. No, that would be stupid. The moment he realized he could extort me, he wouldn't just stop there. But I did promise myself I'd give them some money before leaving the family for good.
They were definitely going to keep an eye on me from now on, assuming they weren't already.
"I have actually never been to the academy," the knight said.
"Oh yeah, you probably won't be allowed in, so do get a room outside. I won't be able to pay for accommodations just so you know."
"I understand," he said. "What should I call you, my lord?"
"Sol's fine."
"Very well then Sol. I will wait for you to finish classes and then escort you around for the rest of the day."
"I should be fine within the academy so that won't be necessary. And since most of the city is run by my family anyway, you probably don't have to worry about much." Yet…
"That's true but this is my job and the least I can do is try."
Fair enough.
We reached the academy, and as usual there were hundreds if not thousands of students just going about their days. For some reason some of the students were looking quite pale though.
As I passed them by, their faces only grew paler.
"They're weary of you," the knight said.
"No shit," I said.
When we reached the fork between the academic buildings and the dorms, my escort knight bid me farewell and left. The hell was that about?
I made way into the dorms, and since it was still early morning, decided to pay a visit to the librarian. She was in her teenage phase.
The moment she saw me, she flared up. Yup, I was going to be fired!
"Took you long enough!
"How long does it take to recover from some damn illness!?
"Do you have any idea how much shit I had to deal with!~
Wait. Hadn't I told her about how I was leaving for a tea party? Huh?
"You okay now though, right?"
"I'm fine…" I said.
"Good."
Nope, nope I hadn't. If she finds out… I cleared my throat. "I was actually away to attend a tea party," I said. "From Duke Alzania." She was going to find out eventually. Better to come clean now than to ruin a perfectly good relationship later on for no reason at all.
She smiled. "Sit down."
I did. She went over to the other side, brought some cookies and milk.
After an extensive lecture and verbal abuse for roughly half an hour, she sighed and let me off the hook for the today. "Be sure to come back early and help me clean up."
"So… I'm not fired?" The way she calmly dismantled every bit of my ego for the last half an hour, I thought for sure I was fired.
"I'd love to but turns out, kids these days are absolute imbeciles. Even fifth year students couldn't put back books in their place. I had three helpers and all three were inadequate; I had to clean up after them. Over the course of the last three weeks, I've hired numerous students but even for good money, they were failures."
"Huh," I wondered. "Shouldn't you pay me more in that case since I'm such a good helper?"
"I'm already paying you more by letting you keep the job."
"I don't think it works like that. How about a 5-gold increase in yearly salary?"
She sighed. "Fine. Just be sure to at least give me a heads-up next time. I was worried you were dead or something."
"I'll be sure to do so."
Maybe I should have asked for more money.