The way back was a slow sauntering affair, mostly because Rowan refused to push anyone harder than was necessary.
Besides, no one really cared about their glacial progress towards the city. The radiance of Blake’s mood was infectious. Even Olivia, predisposed towards disliking the man, couldn’t keep a smile off her face.
Granted, with how she kept sneaking glances at Rowan, that was mostly down to the fact that Rowan was also sporting a smile. Rowan still counted that as a win. So long as there was some kind of connection between her and Blake, however indirect, Rowan was pretty sure he could finally get the two to become reliable allies, if not good friends.
A link, so to say, between his old life and his new reality.
He didn’t want to be forced to choose between them. Partially because he knew exactly what his answer was going to be. The truth of the matter was that Olivia would win ten times out of ten if it really came down to it, even if that made him feel more than just a little conflicted at times.
There was something to be said about that. About choosing a future he so badly desired over a past he sometimes feared wouldn’t be enough to keep a friendship alive. A fear that started gnawing at Rowan every time his old friend started invoking the name of his goddess.
Still, he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to do his very best to keep both of them in his life. He just needed to make sure that no frustrating nobles or gods could sink their claws too deeply into Blake. And he could do that, if his friend let him offer up the help he needed.
For the time being, Rowan had to focus on a much simpler task: getting them back to the city as quietly as he could manage.
There was no real way to hide the passage of six entire parties, especially when they contained so many important figures, but that didn’t mean he needed to cause enough of a fuss that even Blake’s party members would catch wind of it immediately.
The good news was that their way back wasn’t mired by the annoyance of dealing with monsters that gave little to no experience.
The scouts did their jobs perfectly, allowing the tired knights to avoid any more combat encounters that could quickly grow tricky in their current states. Rowan or one of his party members could always step in and assist them, of course, but he was trying to teach them a valuable lesson here.
They needed to be able to take care of themselves, out in the field.
So, with hopes of getting to rest soon, they charted their way through the wastes, and then slipped into the city.
—
Rowan was feeling pretty proud of himself when they slipped into the manor’s back entrance, especially since they’d managed to avoid the vast bulk of the crowds traveling the newly minted city so they could get home before the rapidly approaching twilight.
He asked one of the scouts who had grown up in Rest’s Remorse to lead them through the back alleys typically familiar only to the locals, and had even dispersed most of their entourage, leaving only one party of soldiers to accompany them.
It wasn’t like the threat of assassins was particularly notable after everything they’d cleaned house. He was even feeling proud of how few servants they encountered on their way to the main staircase that would let them access the higher floors.
Rowan’s pride didn’t last. Almost as soon as they reached the staircase, they were met by a trio of glowering women who had posted up right there in the middle of the hall, prominently blocking their way up.
“Where have you been? Bed’s empty! No note! You could have been abducted! We were out of our minds with worry and do you care?” the princess shouted, advancing with intent and menace. “You could have died! You could have been —”
She cut off abruptly mid-sniffle, finger poking into Blake’s chest, as though realizing, for the very first time, that she had an audience.
Rowan couldn’t resist. “Please, do continue,” he said politely, motioning for her to do just that with a beatific smile.
Of course, the only thing that did was make her switch targets. “And you! I know you had something to do with this. I knew you were a bad influence on our hero from day one, but I really didn’t think you’d go as far as to encourage such stupid recklessness.”
Rowan strongly suspected she would have advanced on him too. Fortunately, his brave alchemist stepped right in her path, imposing herself between him and the crazed princess.
The princess glowered in response, but Olivia’s only response was an unimpressed sniff. Something seemed to pass between them, an unsaid acknowledgment or something similar borne of an odd level of familiarity, before the princess actually backed off.
“We are leaving. I am not going to stay here a minute longer if it means having to trust your life with this rabble,” she bit the word out so angrily Rowan actually winced a little, and even Blake frowned.
For a moment, Rowan thought he might admonish her, but then she whirled around and grabbed his hand, trying to drag him away.
Much to the princess’s shock, the hero didn’t budge.
“We’re not leaving, Amanda. And you are not putting my life in anyone’s hands. I am. I know Rowan, and I trust him. He’s already helped me make a significant step forward, or have you not noticed? I can access more of my stats now, and even my deck is starting to recover.”
A whole host of emotions fluttered across the princess’s features, most of them positive. Most notable among them were happiness and relief, but there was also something ugly lurking there too. She then composed herself remarkably quickly.
“So, we owe your friend a favor for helping you kick-start your recovery,” the princess said. Rowan really thought she didn’t have to say the word with such distaste. “Very well. I will make sure we pay him back. However, that doesn’t mean we should stay here. I keep telling you this, but it really is unwise for us.”
“No, Amanda. Just no. I like it here. It’s not even just because of Rowan. I’ve met his party and some of Rowan’s recruits too, and I enjoyed spending time with them. I want to stay here for the duration of my recovery. Maybe longer, too. It would be easier to organize a joint expedition if I do that.”
Blake’s refusal to comply was apparently shocking enough to temporarily paralyze the princess. Right after, however, Rowan saw the way she sent them calculating looks. He recognized that look, that of a person wondering just how far they could push.
She was also obviously unhappy that their little spat had an audience. Unfortunately for her, Rowan wouldn’t bow out and leave Blake alone. Something told him she was pretty confident that she could bully him into acquiescence if Rowan did that.
At least if he could secure a solid promise from Blake to stay, he could trust in his tendency to prioritize promises over all else.
“Blake, we need to return to our town. We need to show people there that you’re okay, and that we’re setting up another expedition to try again. We can’t just stay here,” the princess said. This time her voice was calmer, cajoling.
It still didn’t work.
A brief flicker of pain did radiate out of their bond, the bond which Rowan had done his best to suppress and ignore for the duration of their outing, but Blake didn’t back down. “That sort of thing can be arranged using missives. It’s not just that I don’t want to go back right now, Amanda. I can’t.”
That admission, more than anything, seemed to jolt the princess out of her insistence. It was as he watched the pain and hurt slip into her guarded expression that Rowan was finally forced to acknowledge a simple fact.
She cared.
She actually, genuinely cared.
Now, he wasn’t exactly willing to bet on how long the princess had been nursing feelings towards the hero she was accompanying. Perhaps, at the start, she approached him with less than sincere intentions. But somewhere along the line, Blake’s natural charisma and genuinely good nature must have won her over. Rowan had seen that kind of thing happen plenty of times before, but he had no clue what to do about it then and there.
His eyes flickered instead over to the other two women.
The de Vort woman wasn’t easy to read. She had mostly chosen to follow the princess’s lead for the duration that Rowan had known them. However, there was something in her eyes. Even if Rowan couldn’t call it love, it was, at the very least, fondness.
The Treagon, of course, did not need to be mentioned. The woman was quiet and withdrawn, but her care for the hero in her party was more than apparent. She looked stricken now, like she wished she could reassure him.
Rowan wanted to groan loudly and walk away from the scene. It was a harem situation after all, and he was stuck watching Blake play it out.
“Very well,” the princess said at long last, taking a literal and metaphorical step back. “Perhaps we can stay for a little while longer. However, I would like to request a formal meeting with the noble of this domain.”
Her eyes snapped onto Rowan, then slid down to Olivia, daring her to say no.
“That can be arranged,” Rowan’s alchemist quipped, and he had to fight really hard not to feel like he was just betrayed. “Would you like to meet tomorrow morning? Perhaps first thing in the morning in fact. It wouldn’t do to delay.”
Rowan could hear the smirk in Olivia’s voice, and he couldn’t deny that he loved the way the princess stiffened before reluctantly agreeing. After living under the same roof as the stuck up royal for so long, there was no way Olivia was unaware of the fact that she didn’t like waking up early.
That was the clue he needed to realize that the game was very much on.
“In that case, I believe it is best that we retire for the time. Would you not agree as well, Blake?” The princess switched her attention back to the hero, and this time, he could do little but nod.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
With one last glance at Rowan and a hesitant smile, Blake was practically dragged up the stairs. Something told Rowan that it was unlikely that he’d get to sleep in his bed alone that night, even if the Stalwart Hero had no real clue how his friend felt on the subject.
It was definitely not his former relationship with Kayla that was holding him back.
The two were a lot of things. Friends, lovers, more, and all in between. But, Rowan never could figure out if they had actual, sincere romantic feelings for each other. There was far too much codependency and obsession tied up in that relationship for it to ever truly be healthy.
Then again, the irony and hypocrisy are not lost on me. Rowan chuckled, be it at his thoughts or at what he’d watched play out, he didn’t know.
He understood very well that his feelings for Olivia were definitely several levels above regular affection and somewhere in the ballpark of ‘I-need-her-to-sleep-and-function.’ However, she wasn’t just a coping mechanism for him.
Rowan made sure to take a long, hard look at his feelings. The warmth brought to him from a mere mention of her name or a stray thought in her direction was sincere. He loved her. He well and truly did. If he also happened to need her, well, it was a happy coincidence that they got along so well.
“Do you think there’s going to be trouble?” Rowan asked his fiancée, stepping forward to entwine his fingers with hers.
“Oh, I know there will be. You can’t deal with royalty without them causing some kind of a fuss, after all. We’ll just have to be ready for whatever nonsense she throws our way tomorrow. Unless, of course, you want to kick them all out? We could do that.”
“I thought you were starting to like Blake?” Rowan questioned, and there was no accusation in his voice. He was genuinely curious about what his fiancée thought about his best friend.
“I say this with the utmost reluctance, but yes. He’s not as bad as I feared that he would be. He hasn’t done anything egregious so far, and he does earnestly consider you a friend. So, for now, that’s enough. I would still kick him out though because that would solve all our current problems neatly.”
In other words, she didn’t like Blake enough to let him continue inconveniencing her family. Rowan could work with that.
“Thank you, for putting up with them for me,” he mumbled against her hair as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
The flush on her cheeks brought a smile to his lips.
“Stop teasing me! Let’s just get something to eat and then finally head to bed for the day. I’m not going to tackle her royal pain in the ass without enough sleep.”
Naturally, Rowan had absolutely nothing against that plan.
—
The next day found the Stalwart Hero sitting across from Blake and his party in one of the rooms dedicated to such meetings within his fancy manor.
On his left sat the baroness in all her scowling glory, her husband on the other side of her. On his right sat Olivia, and if anyone noticed that they were holding hands under the table, they didn’t see fit to point it out.
Everyone was tense, including three daughters of nobility who flanked Blake. But the hero himself was absent-minded. Rowan tried and failed to decipher the odd look on his friend’s face.
“You wanted to have a meeting. Well, we are here. You can speak your piece.” Olivia’s opening statement was not particularly polite or friendly, but with only the two groups in the room, she apparently didn’t feel the need to act differently.
The princess took a sharp breath and fought back whatever her first reply was, much to Rowan’s shock. “We would like to ask for an official alliance. Hostilities benefit none of us, and so I propose we pool our resources together, at least until the threat of demons has been eliminated.”
Olivia didn’t immediately scoff or say no. Instead, her eyes slowly swept over the group arrayed in front of her, carefully gauging each of their reactions.
The Treagon looked worried but also content, the de Vort looked disinterested in the discussion, keeping her eyes on Blake, and the princess was, well, the princess.
“Would you please elaborate on this ‘we’? Do you mean to imply that you speak in the name of our king, or do you freely represent your hero’s party?”
Here, for the first time in a while, Rowan got to see a smug grin on the princess’s face. He didn’t really miss it. “As of yesterday, all three of us are engaged to the hero. The engagements are both valid and binding, and we will strive to finalize our marriage as soon as we are able.”
Immediately, Rowan’s undivided attention was on Blake, left eye twitching as some of his exasperation showed on his face.
He really wanted to strangle his friend.
For his part, Blake flushed and looked away from everyone, but Rowan in particular. He also didn’t speak up to deny the princess’s claims, which only made her smug grin grow. The other two women looked more than satisfied with the arrangement as well, if the way the Treagon was now cozying up to the hero was any indication.
“Congratulations, then,” Olivia offered, sounding like she wanted to say anything but. “You did not, however, clarify who you are representing in this meeting.”
The princess flushed, and that same old petulance shown true for a moment. She must have prepared herself for the barbs, because she actually managed to hold herself back once more.
“I represent Hero Blake and his fiancées, as well as the town of Gilbert’s Folly that is currently under Hero Blake’s command.” The speech sounded officious and precise, much like Olivia’s own tone.
There was a subtle difference though. Whereas Olivia spoke confidently and with force, clearly in her element in spite of preferring a lab to the negotiations table, the princess lacked that assurance. She was making up for it with fire, but it was still an unavoidable fact that she came across as stiff and inexperienced at best.
“I see. And what can you offer to this proposed alliance?” Olivia asked.
That had even Rowan eying her hesitantly. The princess obviously hadn’t expected the question either, if the sudden sputtering and darting eyes were anything to judge by.
“I, well, that is… A hero! Of course, having the guaranteed assistance of a second hero is invaluable under these circumstances. And, I think, no, I’m certain that our town can field a second army, larger than the army you have here to accompany us into the wastes.” The princess’ confidence began to crumble.
“Having a second hero around would be nice, yes. But only if he can actually use his powers. Need I remind you that it’s us helping him level up to epic again? Assistance in battle against demons is, therefore, already implied.”
Another score for Olivia, and another sputtering session for the princess. At that point, Rowan was starting to realize that something odd was happening.
Sure, the princess was a brat, and he genuinely didn’t like her. However, her behavior went past that. If he didn’t know better, Rowan would think that she’d never been coached on dealing with other nobles for a single day in her life.
Blake had apparently had enough of watching his brand new fiancée flounder too, because he leaned forward and laid his elbows on the table. “Listen, I know Amanda’s been pretty rude, but I think what she’s been trying to say is pretty simple: I’ll do whatever I can to help. We will, I mean. I mean that.”
Olivia eyed him with a measure of exasperation, even if Rowan could tell she was fighting not to smile. “Oh really? Whatever you can, hm? Does that mean we can expect you to support us with cards? How about additional funds and supplies? We could use some building materials, for example.”
“I mean, I’m pretty sure we have some extra funds? I didn’t really look at our finances much when I took over the town, but the mayor seemed to be on top of things?”
It was Rowan’s turn to jump into the conversation with considerable exasperation. “Wait, what mayor? Your town has a mayor?”
“Yes? He’s in charge of the town. Don’t you have one?” Blake asked. Rowan really didn’t think his friend needed to look that baffled.
“No, I don’t.” Rowan gritted out, leaning back in his seat. “He got eaten by monsters before I ever showed up. How are you still in charge, then?”
“Because I’m a duke?”
“You’re a duke?”
The two just stared at each other, both flabbergasted, before Olivia loudly cleared her throat. “Yes, yes, Hero Blake has, due to his adoption into the royal family, officially been declared as a Duke of the kingdom. There was some rumbling from the temple to make him a Grand Duke, but it didn’t work out.”
“Obviously,” the princess jumped in this time with a dainty snort. “To claim that title, you need to be of royal blood. Or to be married to a member of the royal bloodline and have a designated heir born from that union. Maybe Blake will get the title now.”
Rowan did a double take so quickly his neck was starting to hurt. “You’re pregnant?”
“No! Why would you ask me that? Obviously, I’m not pregnant! We’re not even married yet!”
“But you said you’d need a designated heir to —”
“Rowan,” Olivia cut him off, and she didn’t sound very happy. “Could you please stop cutting in? I’m trying to negotiate with the princess.”
Rowan stopped, letting his shoulders droop. “I get it. And I get that it’s important. But can’t we get to the demands already? We know we’ll say yes, they know they’ll say yes, so do we need this bit in the middle?”
The baron was fighting laughter and losing, if his chuckles were to judge his inner battle by. The baroness was trying to glare at him over her daughter’s head, but the way her lips were twitching was betraying her feelings on the subject too.
Olivia was upset with him though, but then again Rowan was pretty sure that was because he wasn’t ‘properly taking care of his interests’ as she told him she’d do before the meeting.
“Okay, that’s it. The two of you, out. We don’t need two offworlders throwing in comments they understand nothing about. We’ll take care of this, and we’ll let you know what we hash out in the end. You two go hit each other with sticks or something.”
Rowan knew he was being scolded, but couldn’t help the grin regardless. So, he stole a quick kiss from his adorable fiancée and then hurried away from her grumbling about dignity to snatch Blake out of his chair.
Before they could change their mind and call them back, the two heroes fled from their fiancées.
—
While he was more than happy to leave all the politicking to Olivia, there were a couple of things Rowan wanted to clarify himself.
That’s why the very first thing he did after putting some distance between them and the negotiations room was press Blake against the wall with his hand on the other hero’s chest.
“Okay, Blake, what the hell?” Rowan rightfully demanded, forcing his friend to maintain eye contact as he glared.
“Um, lovely weather we’re having?”
“Forget about the weather! What in the world happened yesterday? I leave you chipper about your success after having that depressing talk with you, and now I find out that you’re engaged? Did they blackmail you into this? Emotionally, I mean. Or literally I guess, if they somehow found dirt on you…”
Blake slumped a little, forcing Rowan to put in more effort into holding him against the wall. “Look, like the two of us did, me and my party… talked. There was a bunch of stuff I didn’t know, okay? Stuff about their families and them that I didn’t think to ask before.”
“Stuff like why Kayla was convinced the king is scheming something?”
Blake briefly looked reluctant to answer, but eventually relented under his glare. “Yes, stuff like that. Look, I’m still not sure about Kayla, but… there might be something. Amanda clammed up when I asked her about it, but I didn’t get anything out of her.”
“And so you decided to marry her? Are you now certifiably insane?”
“No, I’m not. Might not have gotten that little tidbit of information out of her, but I did learn about a ton of other things.”
“Like what? What would possibly convince you to marry all three of them when you were waffling on whether you even liked the Treagon?”
“She’s not going to be a Treagon for long, so please stop with the hate already.”
“Answer the question, Blake.”
“Fine,” Rowan’s best friend huffed, then shifted away from his hold and headed down the hallway. “Did you know they raised them to eventually accompany a hero? All three of them? And that they’re not the only ones?”
“What are you even talking about?”
“My party members, obviously. According to them, girls and boys are picked out from among high nobility when hero summoning is near, and then groomed into ‘ideal’ party members. I don’t need to explain exactly what they prepare them for, do I? Two sets of girls, two sets of guys.”
That briefly made Rowan falter, the ridiculousness of what he was hearing making him lose his footing in spite of his high dexterity. He recovered instantaneously, but it didn’t stop his mind from spinning away instead.
“But… they never tried that kind of thing with me, though?”
“Nor did they try with Kayla, apparently. Nine people, raised to pander to heroes and then discarded. Well, not discarded. Sold off to interested nobles as spouses, if Amanda’s to be believed. No use wasting perfectly good trading goods.”
The anger in Blake’s voice was visceral, and if he had the heads of high noble families in reach, Rowan was pretty sure they’d all end up dead.
“I… I wish I could say I’m all that shocked, but they did treat us as like goods at an auction, Blake.”
“I know that! I know that. What was I supposed to do, though? Tell them I don’t want them? That they’d follow me around for a while then go home so they can be shipped off to some strangers? They said they, um, they said they fell in love with me. I-I believe them. So, I said yes.”
For several long moments, neither of them spoke. Rowan eventually sighed and continued, “That’s messed up. Everything about that is messed up.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. At least I finally talked them into trying for an alliance with you, though. That’ll help. Right? Can never have enough reliable allies.” The attempt at levity didn’t really work, but it did make Rowan think.
Apparently, nobility were all about utility. And they did need allies within the city willing to support and accompany them out into the wastes. Just as importantly, he needed [Knights].
If most nobles really were so mercenary as he was now starting to think they were, well, maybe there was one resource he could exploit within easy reach.