It was the day after the procession and Ryan was ready to leave. I was standing at the gates of the Royal Castle. A group of soldiers was ready to leave with me. I looked around and saw Rhea and a woman.
This woman was my Half-mother. She wasn't a bad person per se. But in the lives of Aristocracy, everyone fakes it so I question her intentions quite a lot.
Rhea started crying and came in for a hug.
"Why are you leaving so early brother can't you stay here a bit more? I'll miss you a lot." She said sobbing.
"I can't stay here any longer, the Eastern Land is my domain now so protecting it is also my duty. The eastern land is adjacent to another nation and also is linked to the ocean so that makes my kingdom more vulnerable. I need to get there as soon as possible."
"But-"
"No but's, I'll need to leave right now. Why don't you come to meet me next month?"
Her expression brightened.
"You can even stay with me there for a while, I'll convince your mother somehow." I whispered into her ears.
Her eyes brightened up even more now. She had a huge smile on her face.
"Young L-"
A woman stopped herself from calling Ryan a Young Lord, he had now become a King after all.
"Excuse me, Your Highness. It's about time we leave."
This was the same voice Ryan had heard the first day when he woke up in this world. He looked back. The girl had black hair and blue eyes. She is quite tall for a woman, around 5'10. That's probably why she was trained both as a maid and a knight.
"Alright, let's leave."
He turned around and walked towards the Horse Carriage. He looked back and waved one last goodbye to everyone he knew. Well, only his sister and the half-mother. All the other siblings were in their respective kingdoms probably busy with something.
He entered the carriage and sat inside. The carriage was white and had seats on both the right and left sides both in red color.
"Let's leave."
The maid girl entered the carriage and signaled to all the other soldiers to leave.
There are currently 8 Knights traveling with us. These knights now belong to me. The journey will take 2 days.
Let's make some small talk with her.
"How long do you think it will take us to reach there?"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"It is estimated that we'll take 2 days but if my assumption is right it'll just take us around 1 and a half a day since we most likely won't encounter many monsters."
"Why do you think we won't encounter many monsters?"
"Well, the adventurer's guild has recently made a base in the forest that separated this city from the Land that is currently under your domain. So my assumption is many hunters will hunt in the nearby regions causing the number of monsters to decrease."
"Interesting, I like how you think about this."
Her thought process intrigues me, I'll need to keep her close because there might be opportunities where I may need her way of thinking. It isn't so amazingly far-fetched but pooling brain power from multiple brains is better than just brainstorming with just one. Better if it's someone I can trust. So I need to make her trust me.
"Did you come up with this assumption yourself or was it someone else who told you this?"
"It just came into my mind, it's nothing amazing. But thank you, Your Highness."
I need to make use of the Adventurer's Guild and make them work for me somehow, at least the branch that will be in my kingdom.
---
Just as her assumptions, They reached the kingdom just in 1 and half a day. They didn't encounter anything. Neither a monster nor any animal. It's so uncanny. This was also one of the things that grabbed Ryan's attention.
Did members of the adventurer's guild end up hunting all the herbivorous animals in the forest too?
---
Ryan stood in front of a huge mansion, a black-colored mansion spanning acres.
The gates opened and all the maids and servants were lined up. They all were bowing.
Ryan exited the carriage and looked to his left and then to his right.
"Good Evening, Your Highness."
A man who looked around 50 years of age said while bowing to me.
"I am the Head Butler here and I manage all the activities here."
"It's almost about time for dinner would you like for us to prepare the food first or would you like for us to prepare a bath first."
I stink.
"A bath."
"This maid will take you to the bathroom."
A maid came forward.
"Welcome, Your Highness."
"We all are extremely happy to see you here and are extremely excited to work with you."
"A king without his servant is just like a Knight without his armor. You are the people I will be depending upon from now on. So don't think of yourself as useless or worthless. You are all equally important to me as any Knight or a Family member is."
All the servants had their eyebrows raised. Each one of them was surprised by the worlds of their Lord. He who will be ruling them all was so benevolent and kind that he looked at the servants and maids with humility.
The maid then guided Ryan toward the bathroom.
---
Ryan could now be seen sitting in a room, that had a wooden table and a comfortable chair. To say that it was comfortable was an understatement. The table had a pen stand with 3 pens in it each of different colors, red, blue, and green. Under the table was a small drawer towards the left side. There was a stamp in there but it was no longer useful now. The walls had multiple paintings.
There was a sudden knock on the door.
"Enter."
The Maid who had escorted Ryan entered the room along with the 8 other knights.
"Your Highness, your food is ready."
Ah, yes I'm pretty hungry. It's been like an hour since the sunset.
Ryan stood up.
"This is as far as we come with you Your Highness, we will now be joining in with the other knights."
"NO!"
Ryan blurted out which surprised the 9 others in the room.
"No, what I mean is that you 8 can leave, you however-"
Ryan said pointing towards the tall maid.
"Will be staying with me all the time as my maid. I don't want you joining in with the knights to fight."
"But-"
"I don't want anyone going against my orders."
She paused for a second.
"..."
She made a slight bow.
"It will be my pleasure to serve you as your maid."
---
Ryan had dinner. All alone on the huge dining table. He felt extremely awkward because the maids kept looking towards him with hopeful eyes expecting Ryan to compliment them and so he did. They were extremely happy since their Lord had shown appreciation towards them. The problem wasn't just that but the Tall Maid girl also kept staring intensely at me hoping I wouldn't die. She probably was worried that the food might've been poisoned.
After dinner, while Ryan was about to leave, the Head Butler entered the room.
"I hope the food was up to your expectations."
"Yes, it even surpassed my expectations."
"It's good to hear that. Tomorrow, you'll be giving a name to this kingdom and also giving a public speech to all the people. Is there anything you'd like me to prepare for tomorrow?"
"Bring me some clothes which look rich but also make it seem like it's minimalistic. I want the poor to feel like we are on the same team."
"That will be a good idea, I'll prepare that by tomorrow."
He made a slight bow and then left the room.
Ryan left the dining hall and returned to his bedroom.
He lay on his bed ready to sleep he closed his eyes and rethought everything he had done so far and all the mistakes he had made. Did he even make any mistake?
Tomorrow I name this nation, and give a public speech. What will I even say to the people? It's just the commoners that I'll be speaking in front of tomorrow, but I'll also be having a meeting with other nobles and landlords who own huge lands here and lastly this kingdom's branch of the Holy Church.
Should I change the slave policy here? I think I'll need to know how slaves are used here to understand what laws need to be implemented.
He drifted off to sleep.
I never asked the tall maid girl's name.
---