Kit went to sit down on one of the chairs, when he settled in, he noticed that the other three people in the room were still standing. Suddenly Cadbury and Dove bowed deep. “Umm, what’s going on?” Kit was really confused at the twin’s behaviour.
“Lord Kit, we wanted to thank you for saving our sister.” Kit blinked, why were they using such a formal address suddenly? Kit mulled over their words and noticed a problem, should they not be thanking Mars? If it wasn’t for Mars scaring Chef Nutmeg, Milka wouldn’t have been able to return with them.
Before he could voice his thoughts, Cadbury spoke. “I Cadbury Valantine pledge loyalty to Lord Kit.” Cadbury then bent down on one knee. Kit’s mouth dropped open. The surprised didn’t stop there. Dove dropped down to one knee as well. “I Dove Valantine pledge loyalty to Lord Kit.”
Suddenly a golden thread violent ripped forth from Cadbury and Dove’s chest and shoot straight towards Kit. When the thread hit Kit’s chest he was flung backwards in the chair. Kit raised a hand to rub his chest. “What was that all about?” Kit gasped.
Milka was the one to step forward to explain. “They wanted to thank you for bringing me back with you, they didn’t think a simple use of words would be enough.” Milka clasped her hands in front of her and nervously looked at Kit.
“Whatever just happened was a bit much though, right? Besides Mars is the reason why we were able to bring you back, shouldn’t all the thanks go to him?” Kit wasn’t someone who would take the efforts of someone else as his own.
“Besides Mars’ help with Chef Nutmeg, we are family, so it would be expected to reunite all the family members if possible.” Kit clumsily sat up, the force from the threads connecting really hurt. “What was that by the way?”
“We are now your loyal followers. We will protect you with our lives,” replied Dove.
Kit frowned, this wasn’t something he was comfortable with. “Can we undo it, I don’t want anyone dying for me, especially because I didn’t do anything to deserve such loyalty.” In Kit’s opinion anyone would have done the same thing.
Cadbury and Dove firmly shook their heads. Kit decided to try to reason with the twins. “If I had at least undone Milka’s soul contract I could understand, but I only brought her back, so this really is overboard behaviour.”
Cadbury took in a deep breath. “It our way of apologising.” This made Kit’s brows shoot straight up. Why did they need to apologise?
Dove cleared his throat, “We first came to your restaurant with the intent to steal some of your recipes. Chef Nutmeg signed a contract with us, if we could bring back three recipes, he would release Milka’s soul contract to us.”
Kit frowned, he was now more than ever grateful for signing contracts with all his staff or else Chef Nutmeg would be selling his creations. Now he knew why Snickers said that their aura fluctuated between gold and red.
“The more we got to know you the less we wanted to steal from you, but we couldn’t leave Milka with that man.” Dove hung his head.
“Lucky, we signed a contract then.” Kit voiced his earlier thoughts, Cadbury shiftily avoided eye contact with him. “Right?” Kit began to panic as Cadbury still avoided his eyes, it wouldn’t be good if there was a loophole in his contract.
A loud sigh came from Dove, “We were in the process of finding a contract cancelling artifact.” Kit felt chills at Dove’s words. “We had long ago decided to use that as a last resort. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling thinking we would have to do something so deceitful to you. The moment you employed us we were given a home and family, it wasn’t something we wanted to lose. So… We spent most of our time focusing on trying to find a way to break Milka’s soul contract.”
Relief flooded Kit after hearing Doves words. He would have felt devastated if the twins had betrayed him without breaking a sweat. He also could understand their dilemma, if it was his sister working for a piece of shit like Nutmeg, he would do anything to get her out.
“Ok I get it. I have a sister too. Can you get up now though, you two kneeling like that makes me uncomfortable.” Now he knew the real reason for their behaviour, he could at least understand that their actions were more from guilt than wanting to return his kindness.
Kit tried one more time to get them to undo the pledge, this was met with a firm refusal. Kit stuffed it to the back of his mind, he would try to dissuade them at a later date when their feelings were not so fresh.
Kit then turned to Milka, words came out before he could stop himself. “Why would you sign a soul contract with Nutmeg in the first place?”
Kit wanted to clap a hand over his mouth as soon as he spoke. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer.” Kit started waving his hands in front of him. He was sure the reason she entered a contract wouldn’t be simple.
Milka gently smiled at Kit. “No, it’s ok. Of course you would be curious.” She gently sat down on the couch and blew out a breath. “My fiancé Ben was the one originally with the soul contract with Chef Nutmeg, Ben was the source of most of Chef Nutmeg’s recipes.”
Milka started to tear as she spoke, “Chef Nutmeg brought Ben’s soul contract from a Barron when he found out Ben had some skills in cooking. Ben worked for Chef Nutmeg for three years before I started working there as a waitress. We soon fell in love and Ben told me about his situation.”
Milka paused to gather herself then she continued. “I wanted to help him get out of the horrible contract and Ben had a way. He said if we mingled our souls the contract would break because we would belong to each other.”
“I blindly trusted Ben because I thought we were in love. We went to a black magician, and he performed a ritual. I became unconscious during the ritual and when I woke up, Ben was gone, and I had a necklace around my neck. Soon after I found out that I was now the one contracted to Nutmeg instead of Ben.” Tears were rolling down Milka’s cheek at the end of her story.
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Kit felt his heart ache for the beautiful young girl, Milka did everything in her power to save the one she loved only to have a knife twisted through her heart. Kit knew that betrayal wasn’t something someone could easily overcome.
His mother had also betrayed his love when she kicked him out of the house on that fateful day. He hoped that Milka could start to heal one day, like he was trying to. “Milka, I’m sorry that you met a person so cold hearted. You didn’t deserve for that to happen to you, I will also help you investigate the matter of the soul contract.”
Milka gave Kit a watery smile. “Thank you, Kit.” She softly whispered. Kit turned his attention to Dove and Cadbury, “Did you find any useful information on how to cancel the soul contract?”
A defeated sigh left Cadbury’s mouth. “So far, the most information we could gather was that we would need to find Ben to break the contract. We couldn’t find any information about the original ritual performed, so even though we found Ben, we mightn’t be able to reverse the soul mingling.”
Kit felt his own frustration at the situation, he really wanted to be able to help the siblings. “At least we know that Ben is needed for the reversal. So where is Ben?”
Cadbury clicked his tongue in annoyance. “It was quite tricky to get any information on him, it was not until recently that we found someone that matched his description. If it is him, it will be near impossible to get to him, he is currently in the employment of Viscount Cresento.”
“If my news is correct then Ben is now the head chef for Viscount Cresento. It also seems that Ben had been hiding his talent while he was with Chef Nutmeg. To get a head chef position for a Viscount is something that chefs can only dream of, the skills required are unattainable for most chefs in the Forsaken state.”
“You can imagine how precious Ben is to the Viscount, so kidnapping him would be difficult. Not only that, we can’t afford to offend some from the royal line, it would have dire consequences not just for us but the whole of Spartan Fire.”
Kit’s brow furrowed. “Why would kidnapping Ben cause trouble for Spartan Fire?” Kit paused for a moment when thought about what he just said. He was talking about kidnapping someone without batting an eyelid.
Then he thought about the reasons he was having this discussion in the first place, it was because Ben did something unforgivable, plus it was not like he was going to harm the man. They would just reverse the soul contract then let him go.
Kit suddenly wanted to laugh, never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that when he started playing this game would kidnapping would be something he contemplated. It looked like he was slowly breaking away from his cowardly personality trait. He just hoped it didn’t evolve into something nasty.
“Viscount Cresento is well known to be spiteful and petty, he has previously wiped out small villages because someone offended him in the village. You can just imagine what he would do if he found out we wanted to kidnap one of his favourite subordinates.”
“Instead of kidnapping Ben could we not offer a trade?” Maybe they could find something a Viscount would want desperately.
Dove started shaking his head. “We thought of that too, but something that could tempt viscount Cresento is not something we can obtain.”
Kit felt his heart sinking at the news, getting their hands on Ben was going to be a problem. “Let’s not think about that for now, we need to find a way to break the soul mingling first. Then we can figure out how to ensnare Ben, the good thing is we know where he is, so we won’t have to worry about finding him later.”
“I think we should consult Snickers about this, she has quite a bit of knowledge under her belt. Maybe she will have an answer or know who we can contact to get information on reversing the soul contract.” Kit looked at the others to see if they consented.
“Any help would be appreciated. Thankyou again Kit.” Milka looked relived that they had a new source of possible information.
“Ok. Then let’s head to the restaurant now.” The group followed Kit towards his restaurant. They found Snickers consulting with Grandpa around the back of the restaurant.
“Kit! Quick come and look at these.” Snickers was holding a piece of wood and a glowing blue crystal in her hands. The wood was a deep burgundy with tiny blue swirls embedded in the wood. The crystal practically hummed with vitality in Snickers had.
“Are these some of the materials for the restaurant?” Kit inquired.
“Yes, aren’t they beautiful! Just imagine what the outside of the restaurant will look like with this beautiful wood.” Kit had to agree with Snickers, the wood did look very good.
“Snickers, before we get swept up in restaurant discussions, can you take a look at Milka’s necklace first, please.” Kit motioned towards the beautiful girl standing behind him.
“Sure, anything for you little Kitty.” Snickers gave the wood to Grandpa to hold, then walked over to Milka and held out her hand. Milka removed a small wooden box from her dress pocket and handed it to Snickers.
Snickers raised the lid with curiosity, when she pulled the necklace from the box, she gave a scandalised gasp. “What are you doing with something like this?” Snickers turned angry eyes towards Milka.
“Snickers, this is Milka’s necklace, as in the thing inside is part of her.” Snickers eye went round at Kit’s words.
“How? Why? Ah I’m sorry. That’s not important.” Snickers waved her hand in dismissal then brought the necklace closer to her eyes and inspected the contents. “Hmm, this is a mingling?” Snickers looked at Milka for confirmation on her guess.
“Yes, Miss Snickers.” Milka looked shocked that Snickers had guessed the contents of the necklace straight away. Milka then relayed her story to Snickers.
“What an arsehole! Don’t worry my dear, we will make the piece of shit pay!” Snickers was practically glowing with anger after hearing the tale. “As for reversing the soul mingling, I might have a friend who can do it. Leave it with me and I will send him a message.”
“Thank you Snickers!” Milka enveloped the delicate elf into a hug.
When Snickers was released, she turned her gaze to Dove and Cadbury. “And what have you two done?” There was no anger in her voice just curiosity, Snickers gaze drifted between Kit and the twins. “Oh wow! Haha. Kit I was right, these two would be devoted to you if you could sort out the red aura. Congratulations on gaining two knights!”
“Knights?” Kit was confused at Snickers words, then he remembered the scene at the boarding house when the twin’s pledged loyalty.
Snickers was nodding her head with glee written clear on her face. “Yes knights! Dove and Cadbury are quite strong fighters, so they automatically got classed as knights. This pledge was possible because you are a lord, remember, you can even build a castle! Mind you it can only be a small one because you are only a Lord.”
“Build a castle, Snickers I have enough on my plate with the restaurant. Don’t try to give me more work with building a castle!” Kit felt even if he wanted to build a castle it would be impossible right now. How much would that even cost?
“Oh ok, but don’t altogether dismiss the idea. I’ve always wanted to live in a human castle, they look so grand, and Leonard could make it look very majestic.” Snickers had a dreamy look on her face as she spoke.
Kit decided not to comment, or else Snickers might try to garner a promise to build one from him. Grandpa took advantage of Snickers being absorbed in her thoughts to but in. “Kit, I need you to go to the Spartan Fire quest board to officially post the quest to gather the floating magica crystals and Blueburr wood. Many people have already expressed interest in taking up the task.”
Kit had forgotten all about posting the quests, Grandpa had asked him last night to post them first thing this morning. He had planned to do it on the way to the restaurant, but he had gotten distracted by Milka and the twins.
“I’ll go right now!” Kit left in a hurry, the faster he posted the quest the faster he could collect the materials.