Oryn was first to arrive as usual in Prince Estevan’s office. There were documents that he had placed on the table and arranged, from people to remember and others to be reconsidered later. However, as expected, most of the results of their efforts ended up in suspicious activities by nobles and not much about within the palace.

He was a bit more stressed now to be honest, but he was not one to complain as this would be expected in this kind of job. Not to mention he was serving a prince. Truth be told, his work should have always been like this, but he got it too easy.

Reason was that Prince Estevan was more into knighthood, so there was not much to assist him with within his job. Oryn was even often stuck cleaning since the prince was constantly with the knights.

He imagined if he was the assistant of the eldest prince, he might always have had a hard time. The image of the stressed out assistant of the eldest prince came to his mind, it was a bit hilarious honestly. But Oryn could only watch him with empathy, as diplomatically focused that prince was, it was easy to imagine how much that fellow assistant of his has to work with. Perhaps he was lucky to have this job, in the end.

In contrast, his patrol within the palace was always in his mind and only added to his workload.

It was only then that the door opened and came inside the prince that he served.

“Good morning, your highness,” Oryn greeted him with a bow.

“Hey, these had already been organized I believe?”

“Of course, your highness. I’m sure you will have no problem following the paperwork at all.”

“I doubt that…'' he faintly chuckled. “In any case, I’m afraid I won’t stay here long. To be precise, I won’t stay the entire morning.”

“May I ask why?”

“It has been a while since I’ve been with the knights, I need to check on them thoroughly every once and a while.”

Oryn heaved a long sigh. Somehow, he felt some ulterior motive in what the prince was planning to do. He had somewhat anticipated something like this would happen.

“Your highness, please don’t escape from your task which consists of papers.”

The prince scoffed as he sat down on his chair.

“I’m not trying to escape. I’m being serious.”

Oryn sighed again in resignation.

“Whatever you say then, your highness.”

The prince then went on to review the papers.

“Better show this to Father when he comes back, he’ll decide what to do with these stubborn nobles.”

Oryn then remembered something after what he heard from the prince.

“Which reminds me, the King is departing the palace today.”

“Yeah.”

“What sort of problem would require the personal time of his Majesty?”

“.... Mm, he said he’s going to the Church.”

“I see…”

The church, huh.

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Oryn heard they have been quite active lately.

Maybe they have caught onto something.

Something that involves the entire kingdom and something that requires the attention of the King. Whatever it may be, it must be no means small.

Then more than half an hour passed, and the prince stood up from his chair with a sigh.

“Now then, I have to go. Take care of the office while I’m gone.”

The prince must be quite happy to have been free from paperwork evident from the slight smile on his face. That said, the way he said those words lacked the energy Oryn expected from Estevan, especially that he was returning to the knights for a while.

But it may be just his imagination.

“Understood, your highness.”

When the prince had left, Oryn let out a heavy sigh and sat down on the couch and leaned back. There was nothing else to take care of here, and there was nothing left to do with the papers. The room was also already clean.

Therefore, he only sat down, but there were some things in his mind.

He thought about what he wanted to do, but it was harder to carry out as he expected. There were just some obstacles that obstructed his goals and his piling anxiety. That anxiety of his, anyone could understand if they empathize with him.

He rapped his finger on the couch, pondering on how he should proceed. His heart couldn’t keep waiting anymore, and touching his ears only made him more restless. The pain as they were cut off was still clear in his memories. How could he forget?

As he fell into his thoughts, about half an hour had passed and there was a knock on the door.

For some reason, he already had an idea who that could be. There was no one else he could think from the top of his head that would come here and would knock that gentle.

“Excuse me, brother?”

And as he had guessed, it was indeed the princess. However, it would seem that she didn’t know that his brother was leaving for the knights. Oryn proceeded to open the door.

“Ah, Oryn,” she took a peek past Oryn in search of her brother. “Big brother is not here?”

She asked with a hint of disappointment in her voice as she looked at Oryn with her wide red eyes.

“I’m afraid not.”

Oryn looked behind the princess and saw the old man named Vernon, who was supposed to be one of the King’s attendants. Then strangely, the maid was nowhere to be seen.

“I see… In this case, I’ll help my brother then, may I?”

Oryn had no reason to deny her.

“Of course, your highness.”

As the princess entered. “You don’t have to enter Vernon, I’ll be fine here with Oryn. Besides, there is nothing else for you to do here.”

Vernon looked at the princess then to Oryn, then with a hesitant nod, he agreed.

“As you wish, your highness.”

Oryn was surprised by the princess’s decision, she would normally let her servants inside. Granted, they have nothing else to do but stand around.

In addition to that, the princess seemed to have become comfortable with Oryn, and thus her decision.

As the door closed, Oryn decided to ask a question.

“Your maid is not around, your highness?”

“No, she asked to have a day off to rest. Well, she had been training with me and adding to that her duties as a maid, I’m sure it must have worn her out.”

She said so as she sat down on the chair in front of the desk.

“I see.”

“By the way, where did Brother go? He never said anything to me.”

“He… he wanted to visit the knights' order.”

“... I see…” the princess looked sad.

“You have just missed him.”

“A shame… But I suppose Brother is busy, so it is to be expected that I wouldn’t see him much anymore.”

The princess went on to scan the papers on the table.

“Slavery? Disputes, feuds? And…”

She was stunned by the information she had just absorbed. Disbelief was painted all over her eyes.

“Nobles are capable of these?” she asked in a shaky tone.

“Yes, that is how the world truly is beyond the palace.”

“... What are the punishments?”

“Well, the family members proven to be involved will be stripped of their noble rank and be imprisoned or just penalized. It will depend on the amount of evil deeds they have done.”

“Who will judge them?”

“Mostly the Ministry of Internal Affairs would handle it, and sometimes the King himself depending on the situation. But in the end, the King will sign the final decision.”

“I see. Has Father seen these?”

“Not yet.”

“Hm…”

Oryn looked at the door then returned to the princess. He watched as the princess immersed herself in the paperwork writing down on a sheet of paper. She was clueless and defenseless.

A few minutes passed by and Oryn looked at the door once again. It would appear that no one else was coming in.

He placed his right hand behind him and curled his fingers as he looked at the princess. A faint wind gathered up in his palm as he slowly stepped forward, gradually closing in on the princess.

The princess had no worries whatsoever as a smile played on her lips as she read the documents.

Then the princess was now within his arm’s reach. Oryn’s heart raced as he proceeded to take out his hand forward. But that was when the princess lowered the paper as a question emerged from her lips. A question no one in this world would expect to be asked here.

“Oryn, are you an elf?”

What…?

Oryn’s face contorted into utter surprise, and the princess turned to look at him with a sweet smile.