"Your food is here, Count Karl. Shall we enter the room?" Jess asked the Count.
"William, give me the food. You go and call the Knighthead," Count Karl ordered Jess.
Jess suddenly left through the door, presumably to find the Knighthead.
"Should I just enter? I don't know," Will thought to himself.
"You can come in, kid. Pass me the food," Count Karl affirmed William.
William walked down towards Count Karl, nervously. He passed the food and started to serve it to the Count.
"Kid, how's it going? Anything suspicious?" Karl asked Will, with his fork and knife in hand.
"No, sir. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, sir," William answered Count Karl.
"Good. Let's keep it that way. Anyway, how's your training going?" Karl questioned Will with a short laugh.
"It just started, sir."
"Alright. Sir, who in your eyes would be the most suspicious in this whole scenario?" William asked curiously.
"You. You're the most suspicious."
"Huh? Me?" Will said astonishingly.
"You're the stranger here. I don't know you. I'm only trusting Cassian, that's it," Count Karl said while wiping food off his face with a handkerchief.
"I understand, sir," William said with a serious look.
"I probably would've felt the same way," William thought to himself.
"You know what? To hell with your training, kid. You will be with me for the whole day."
"What? Why?" William asked, confused.
"It's like a double-edged sword. You won't harm me, and the assassin won't be able to come near me."
"Smart. It's not like I wanted to harm you, though. It's the opposite," William mumbled to himself.
Suddenly, the doors opened, and a knight came in with Jess.
"Sir, I have brought the Knighthead with me as you asked," Jess said.
"I want you to tighten up the security even more."
"Of course, as you ask, sir," the knight affirmed.
"Jess, I'll be taking Will with me. His training is to be halted. Is that fine with you?"
"That's okay, sir," Jess answered.
"May I ask where you're going, and do you need my assistance?"
"No, Jess, thank you, but he won't need your assistance. You can stay at the manor. We will be going for a small trip for a change."
"As you say, sir," Jess added.
William and Karl proceeded to leave the manor and head to the nearby lake in a carriage.
"The wind's strong, isn't it?" Karl told Will.
"Yeah, a bit," Will replied.
"I wanted to ask this, but how long have you known Jess for? She is kind of weird," Will mentioned.
"I understand how you feel, but she has been serving me for the past four years without fail."
"In my eyes, she is the most suspicious one," Will added.
"I'll keep that in mind. Now, enjoy the view, kid. Don't worry," Karl told Will with a happy smile.
"I guess so," Will answered, deep in thought.
The carriage ride proceeded as normal until they reached the lake.
"The lake's kind of beautiful, no?" William muttered.
"It is. I like to come here. This place freshens me up."
The lake was surrounded by long pine trees. The lake itself was huge and very deep. It was so fresh that you could even see your reflection in it.
"Wanna jump in, kid?" Karl suggested.
"Nah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me," Will spoke while chuckling.
They both spent a few hours analyzing and taking in the beauty of the place. Will started to skip rocks on the water but was unsuccessful.
"Let me show you how it's done," Karl said, proceeding to skip rocks consistently.
"You just gotta practice, kid," Karl said proudly.
"It's starting to get late. Let's leave," Karl ordered.
They both entered the carriage and left for the manor in high spirits.
"The wind's getting dry," Karl mentioned.
"Yeah, it's like something's burning," Will replied.
Suddenly, both of them looked outside trying to spot the manor , and there it was burning.
"What? Why is the manor under fire? This can't be happening! This cost me a fortune!" Karl said in deep despair.
Suddenly, they both heard a thud on top of the carrage .
It was Gray and Captain Cassian.
"Count, I think this fire is related to the death threats. I advise you to stay put in your carriage. And William, you stay put with the Count," the Captain yelled.
They then proceeded to leave and move toward the fire.
William took a deep breath to calm down.
"Stay vigilant. Stay focused. Stay strong," William thought to himself with his eyes closed.
Suddenly, Count Karl fell down in the carriage from the shock.
"Don't worry, sir. It'll be fine," Will tried to comfort Karl.
Will tried to look toward the manor, but the only thing he saw was the fiery red fire burning the manor down to its last crisp.
He started to look up and down to find a weapon of some sort, but he couldn't find anything.
Suddenly, something hit his mind.
"Where are the knights? Are they in on this?" Will commented in deep thought while looking through the window.
"That's it! It has to be it! They will regret messing with me. I'll show them the power of a noble of the Empire and how cruel I can be!" Karl yelled in pain.
William didn't know what to do. He looked out, looked side to side, but he found nothing.
William started to hear grunts of people from inside the fire.
"What's going on in there?" William asked himself.
He started to see people, half-burned, coming out of the fire.
A short scream came out of William's mouth.
"Shrreeakkkk!"
He looked closely, and the people would usually fall down before even reaching the carriage, but for some reason, a person who looked familiar came out of the fire with a dagger in hand, looking determined and unaffected by the fire.
It was Jess.
"Didn't I tell you Jess was a creep?" William shouted. "Now look how she's coming toward us!"
"Idiot! She's here to help us!" Karl came up to the window and started to scream.
"Jess! Jess! Jess!"
Jess looked pale and serious as usual. She pulled a knife from her pocket and threw it at Count Karl.
William pushed Karl to protect him and avoid the knife.