“Did you really make an entire speech about how people should sacrifice to protect others? At a funeral?” Seo-ah asked in a hushed whisper as Nick sat back down.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Nick blinked in confusion. “We could always use more volunteers, more funding—any bone they’re willing to toss us.”
“Well, it was a good speech anyway,” Seo-ah admitted, gripping Nick’s hand as she smiled at him. “You did well.”
“Thanks,” Nick replied, glancing over momentarily at Darleen to see how she had taken it. He was pleased to see her return a thankful smile before starting to make her way over to them.
“It seems she’s happy too,” Seo-ah noted.
“Yup. Which I guess means we can leave now?” Nick asked.
“What do you mean? We still have to go handle the will dispute,” Seo-ah told him, reminding him of one of the original goals he had when he got there.
“Oh, right . . .” Nick frowned. He had forgotten one of the major reasons for attending the funeral was a fight over the will, which had left everything entirely to him. He took a deep breath, calmed his nerves, and looked over to his girl for support. Only, in that brief moment where he’d been steadying himself, she had already diverted her attention elsewhere.
She was using her Pilfer skill to steal something. Nick, completely baffled by what was happening, watched in stunned silence as Seo-ah looked triumphantly at her hand.
A second later, Seo-ah noticed Nick looking at her. She opened her hand, revealing a small caramel soft chew, the kind that Nick would see grandmothers hand out in old movies as a kid. “What?” she asked innocently. “She was giving them away anyway . . . and you were just . . . Hey, don’t look at me like that! She was giving them away, I swear!”
Nick just shook his head as he sighed, not even about to guess who his girl had just robbed of a candy. The thought entered his head that she might, literally, have taken candy from a baby.
“Well, there’s no chance you know where this contesting of the will is going to be held, is there? I’d kind of like to get it over with, before I get stuck in a hundred conversations. I know we have an entire day, but I’d really like to—”
“You’re not going back early,” Seo-ah informed him, putting a stop to his train of thought right there.
“But I was hoping to? I mean, it’d be nice to get a head start and organize things before our first training session begins,” Nick admitted.
“You’re saying that, but you realize you haven’t even talked to your parents,” she then reminded him.
Nick looked over at them. They were chatting with his Uncle George, Evan’s father. “I think I’m okay with that,” he replied. He didn’t know why, but as time passed, they felt increasingly like strangers.
The more he looked at them, the more he thought about it, the more he couldn't help but think about the way they’d turned a blind eye to Catherine and Evan, the way they’d chosen the family fortune over helping him out when his grandfather, the man he’d been pressed to give a eulogy for, had kicked him out.
He kept wondering how they could just act like nothing had happened as he watched them just happily chatting away with his uncle.
“You’re really okay with that?” Seo-ah asked, looking up at him like she was studying his stance in a fight for an opening.
Nick glanced once more at his parents, who hadn’t even looked his way since the eulogy, and nodded. “Yup. Let’s go. I’m sure the driver can take us to the next place.”
“There won’t be a need for that, my dear cousin,” Lady Isolde insisted as she flanked Nick on his other side, taking his free arm, the one Seo-ah wasn’t holding, like he was supposed to be escorting her. “I’ve already organized the event. It’ll be close by. I knew you’d be pressed for time, and I was personally just dying to see the festivities.”
“How did you pull that off, and why do you sound so excited? What festivities?” Nick asked as he looked over at the tall, pale woman now attached to his side. Despite the fact most people, including Nick at the moment, were wearing just black, she had a purple blouse with green jewelry underneath her black jacket, as if she had missed the very concept of mourning wear.
“Oh, oh my. Did you spend so long in the dungeons with your adventuring cohorts that you are completely unaware of exactly who is contesting the will?” Lady Isolde’s face lit up. “Oh this is too delicious. I can’t wait!”
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“Isolde . . . he’s—” Seraphina blurted out. She had been standing close to the exit next to Roland as Nick and the others happened upon them while walking to the exit. She had stopped speaking the moment she saw Nick with the two ladies escorting him through the funeral seating toward the parking area. She frowned and shook her head.
“Not even single digit,” Isolde shot back, referencing something Nick was obviously failing to understand.
“It seems the nefarious villain of the hour is here,” Roland, the giant of a man who had been standing with Seraphina, said as he glared at Nick.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nick bit back the words he actually felt like saying as the muscle mountain in front of him narrowed his eyes at Nick.
“You can take the others for a fool, but I am not one, cousin. I know your schemes are as deep as the ocean and as vast as the skies above. There is no need for you to be cunning and play coy with me,” Roland asserted as his eyes shifted from Nick to Lady Isolde and then back to Nick. “And it seems you’ve managed to turn yet more blood against me.”
“Oh, come now,” Lady Isolde protested, covering her mouth in clearly feigned shock. “I’m not turning against you. We’re all family, of course I would be kind to everyone here, you included. It would be unbecoming of my station not to treat you all with respect.”
This caused Roland to laugh. His canines showed through his snarling smile. “You think I don’t know who attempted to out-maneuver my lawyer?”
Lady Isolde narrowed her eyes, looking more than a little frustrated at the fact that Roland’s laugh was loud enough to draw the eyes of those around him, and he had brought up the subject of the will before people had even finished paying respect to the corpse. “Roland, dear, we haven’t even left the venue yet. Perhaps you could show a little decorum and mind your manners until we are at least in private.”
Nick understood her disgust, but he already knew Roland’s response before it even left his mouth.
“Why should I care? If they choose to disdain us and divest from the fortune over this incident, it’ll only make their stock that much cheaper for purchase,” he replied with a chuckle, turning his attention to Nick. “Is that why your speech was so well crafted, cousin? Because you knew I would try to buy up the public shares if the value dropped due to your incompetence as a figurehead?”
“There is no such incompetence or weakness here,” Rosemary stated as she strutted into the group, announcing her presence with a voice that cut as quick and sharp as her rapier. “I assure you, the papers’ are signed, and the deal’s worked out. The operations of the Gallows ship shall only chart profits in its course ahead. I don’t know why you insist on ruffling feathers.”
“It’s annoying when unnecessary side characters keep intervening in my conversations. Perhaps if you hadn’t taken the knee for your new master, you’d be worthy of this discussion,” Roland quipped with the same annoying arrogance he’d started with.
“Can I just punch him?” Seo-ah mumbled under her breath, her teeth gritted as she looked over at Nick for approval.
“What do you want, Roland? I have precious little time, and as you’ve pointed out, it’s annoying when unnecessary side characters keep intervening with my conversations,” Nick quipped back, knowing it would get under the man’s skin. At first, he hadn’t thought it was worth talking to this cousin, but the more the guy rambled, the easier it was for Nick to see how to manipulate him and cut short the man’s schemes.
“I want what’s mine, cousin, and I plan to take it back. I won’t let this last minute change by you and that secretary of his stand,” Roland stated coldly, all mirth washed from his face.
“With a lawyer? Since you were too weak to do it with your own strength?” Nick chortled, turning to Seo-ah. “Look at him hiring a legal assistant to fight his battles for him. I guess it’s because of how badly he lost in the heirship contest.”
“You know full well that the two of you”—he pointed at Rosemary and then Nick—“robbed me of my rightful inheritance with your treachery. I could take either of you in a one-on-one fight. You may be better at trickery and deceit, like the snake you are, but I’m better at fighting. If it had been a fair contest, there is no way I wouldn’t be standing where you’re standing, wearing my own crown.”
“You mean this crown?” Nick asked as he took out the Gallows crown he’d inherited from his grandfather. Looking around, he realized that the few people who had been watching this little episode of family drama earlier had multiplied into a full throng, a crowd so large he couldn’t count everyone.
Nick had to suppress a little joy as he watched Roland’s eyes open wider than saucers, visibly greedy at the sight of the jeweled head ornament now resting atop Nick’s hair.
“How bold of you to wear it when its rightful owner is in front of you,” Roland huffed.
“I suppose we’ll have to wait for the courts to decide that since you’re clearly too much of a coward to handle this yourself,” Nick mocked, happily watching the words get under Roland’s skin.
“You think I can’t best you and take it right here, right in front of all these witnesses?” Roland shot back.
“You want to try?” Nick questioned. “You want to bet the will on it?”
“I won’t need to try. Success is guaranteed. If you’re willing to give up your claim on the inheritance for your pride, who am I to stop you?” Roland asked.
“Then why don’t you prove it. But if I’m putting this crown and the will on the line,” Nick took the crown off for a moment and spun it like a basketball in his hands just to stay under Roland’s nerves—“then I’m going to need you to put something on the line too.”
“Me giving up my right to contest the will isn’t enough?” Roland questioned.
“No. I want more. The will is already mine. The assets are mine. The company is mine. A promise not to try to steal what was never yours to begin with isn’t worth wagering anything for. I want more.” Nick narrowed his eyes at the large man.
“Then name it.”
“I’ll tell you the terms after the fight,” Nick told him, pausing as he drew out the thought, looking around to make sure as many people were watching as possible. “Since you’re so sure of the win, you shouldn’t care when the terms are called, should you?”
“You’ve brought this fate on yourself,” Roland said as he, in a single clean move, threw his jacket to the side, his muscles growing and ripping apart his shirt as he prepared for the battle. “Don’t be surprised if you end up with a broken bone or two.”