-36-

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I massaged my hand gently around my shoulder, the muscle underneath already feeling stiff and sore.

“I think ya’ might’ve left a bruise, Hails.”

“Hmph!”

Hailey marched ahead without concern.

“I couldn’t stop myself!” I called out after her, “The timing was just too good and I was enjoying the brief respite of not having to put on a haughty noble face.”

Her steps faltered and we both came to a brief stop.

“If you’re really sorry about it then actually say so.”

I closed the gap between us and took her hand in mine.

“I apologize. You made it clear you didn’t want me to bring it up or dig into it, but I’m a jerk and I ignored your feelings.”

Hailey took a deep breath and sighed.

“Fine. I accept your apology. Let’s move on.”

We continued following after the soldiers Captain Belder had assigned to escort us to Hailey’s father. The captain kept his post at the gate to welcome in the rest of my forces and get them situated.

In all likeliness, remaining there was probably the least stressful option.

From the noticeable awkwardness between Hails and him, I gathered it may have been quite some time since she’d been home. I knew that she had pursued the commander’s position in the Third Division as it meant she’d be stationed in Axio—closer to me—but I’d never dug any further than that.

She was reluctant to share more at the time and I didn’t want to press too hard. What I did know, was that she’d been stationed in Axio as the Third Division commander for a while.

Even before the city was turned into a battlefield and we’d met while fleeing through the streets, she and I hadn’t seen each other in at least two years.

Maybe longer.

I had been attracted to her back then, but I didn’t know she felt the same—and as it turned out, she thought the same.

I didn’t keep tabs on her or the things she was up to.

By the time I even noticed she had been the commander, she’d already been in the position for a year or two.

And in all that time, it seems that she never once came by this little town to check-in.

I wouldn’t want to be in Captain Belder’s shoes.

Hailey hadn’t really talked about her father much in the time we’ve been together so all I recalled were the little things she had told me in the academy over a decade ago and the brief interaction we’d shared during our valediction ceremony.

“Your, uhm, family’s home is in town, right?” I asked quietly, tugging on Hailey’s sleeve to grab her attention.

“Yeah. I was told that mom preferred to be close to town rather than have an estate miles away like higher-class noble families did for no reason other than vanity or disdain of commoners.”

“Ahh.” I nodded in agreement, “I know what you mean. I don’t even know where the family who managed Cahir lived. There was no noble’s estate anywhere close when Julius and I passed through, and there wasn’t anyone claiming to be from a noble family among the refugees we took in before the Renault-backed bandit group attacked.”

“Cahir was pushing the frontiers of the Commonlands and likely didn’t have a titled position to oversee it. The village was probably under the Expansion and Reclamation bureau, which fell under the Ministry of State—so, ya’ know… former minister Bashir.”

I pursed my lips and kept quiet, not wanting to dredge up any sourness that remained between Hailey and me from that incident.

She continued on without hesitation, “I’ve heard that House Elyssia didn’t even bother to build an estate and remained in Axio. I wonder if that town tried to hold out like Brookshaven or not.”

“Considering the town was founded when the lines between Republics weren’t so defined, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Renaultians didn’t already own the governor.” I grumbled.

“Yeah, maybe. Our scouting reports didn’t do a lot of justice. Too many Renaultian patrols and a garrison much larger than expected. Mei shouldn’t have a problem antagonizing them, though.”

Hailey paused as we rounded the top of a hill.

A decently sized manor stood tall just ahead of us. Short brick walls with decorative wrought-iron fencing circled the perimeter, allowing any passerby to look in and see the beautiful gardens and well-maintained exterior.

“Oh.” Hailey’s voice quaked. “I’m… home.”

She took a few steps forward on shaky legs, and I followed her gaze to find a short older-looking man in dirty trousers tending to a flower patch. His hair was grayer, and his choice of clothes much more moderate—but I recognized him.

Hailey’s father. Baron Haaric Brooks.

“Are you alright?” I asked Hailey, putting my hands on her shoulders to steady her.

She nodded her head gently, and we followed after our escorts.

The leader of which, a boy who probably wasn’t even over the age of twenty but somehow had rank insignia that of a Knight-Lieutenant, hailed the lone guard stationed at the gate.

The guard wasn’t wearing a divisional uniform, rather he was sporting lightly-plated armor with the Brooks family emblem etched into the chest.

The young man snapped to attention and delivered quite a mouthful, “Distinguished guests have arrived to see His Grace. Her Majesty, Empress Airis Vanixi and High-Commander of the Imperial Armies, Commander Hailey Brooks.”

Emotions showed themselves clearly in the facial expressions of the more senior guardsman.

Surprise.

Then confusion.

Disbelief.

Annnd we’re back to confusion. Nice.

The corners of my mouth twitched and I suppressed the urge to smirk. I could practically see the slew of internal rationalizations the poor guy had to have been going through.

“Everything well at the gates, Eques Bedivere?”

A gravelly voice spoke from a small wooden box atop a metal post. It broke the guardsman from his stupor. The guard, apparently a knight of title—If I recalled right, Equites were a class of nobility outside of standard Imperial peerage. They were employed in all manner of places, including the old imperial armies.

I glanced around but wasn’t able to confirm the speaker. However, my suspicions were confirmed in the next moment.

“All is well, Your Grace. Respected guests have arrived, shall I show them into the drawing room?”

Bedivere threw an odd inflection on the word ‘respected’ while eye-balling Hailey. She looked uncomfortable under his gaze. I shared the feeling.

“Hmmm,” Baron Brooks’ voice grumbled through the voice-box. “Yes, that would be best I suppose. I shall need a fresh set of clothing to greet such important guests.”

I had no way of knowing if Hailey’s father had heard the announcement from our escort. If he did, he didn’t seem too thrilled to accept us.

Bedivere reached down with a hand and pressed a finger into a small indent atop the speaker device and an audible click was heard.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Eques Pellinore.” He called down at the box, “I am escorting respected guests to the drawing room. Keep watch over the gate until I return.”

There’s that weird inflection again.

Hailey and I followed after the estate knight along with the divisional knights. I dropped step and fell back a few paces, and thankfully Hailey caught my intention and fell in with me.

I spoke to her in a hushed tone, “Has your family always had free-knights at the estate?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen that man before. Nor whomever this Pellinore person is. The way he looked at me made my skin crawl, I could feel the malice in his eyes.”

My hands balled tightly into fists.

“It shouldn’t be long until we meet your dad and get this all sorted out. They could be agents from Axio trying to leverage the Baron. Or they could just be rude assholes.”

Hailey’s hand reached out for mine, slipping her fingers through my own.

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

“If anything goes wrong, our priority should be securing the Baron and escaping the estate. We can’t trust that the building hasn’t been compromised.”

Hailey was speaking as the High-Commander, not as the Baron’s daughter.

I nodded, touching the small rune behind my ear hidden by my hair.

“Tomin. How are things at the town gatehouse?”

“Going fine. Everyone is inside the walls at least. Captain Belder is doing a fine job getting us all squared away.”

“Great,” I replied flatly, still pretending to have a quiet conversation with Hailey. “We’re about thirty seconds from entering the Baron’s estate and have possibly encountered a hostile force implanted within. I may need Ikuye if things go bad, she has a mark on my location—don’t ask me how—just stick with her, and if I call you tell her to get here as quick as she came. That means flying is allowed, her intimidating aura be damned. We can address issues it causes after everything is secured. That’s all I can give you. We’re at the door. I’m going silent.”

Static crackled and I heard a perplexed “Acknowledged?” as we passed through the estate’s large double doors.

Our group was now all shuffling down the hall together too closely for Hailey and me to speak privately.

“Please make yourselves comfortable in here.” Bedivere said while opening the door to a room I’d describe as anything but comfortable.

It was furnished. But that is about as far as I would go to give it any bonuses. The drapery was plain. Side tables, shelving, and cabinets were bare of anything of note. The couches and chairs not only lacked color, all of them were a dull beige, but had no embroidery or accents that even a poorer laynoble family would have been able to afford.

Hailey and I filed into the room wordlessly.

The young Knight-Lieutenant was noticeably distressed, “Ah, Eques Bedivere, was it? I think there may have been a mistake—”

And the door slammed in his face.

His three men wore their shock plainly across the face. One audibly let his disbelief known, “What in the Aether was that?”

“A mistake I-I’m sure!” Stammered the escort leader.

“Perhaps the knight mistook my sincerity at the gate for sarcasm and is working under a false impression. I will follow after him and correct this misunderstanding.”

The Knight-Lieutenant reached for the door handle and—“It’s locked?”

Cries of surprise came from the three soldiers, but Hailey and I both remained straight-faced.

“I knew it.” I said under my breath as I sighed.

While the soldiers attempted to free us from the room, I took a closer look around.

The wooden flooring was gouged in places, but not from mismanaging furnishings. Deep cuts in the wood were all over, stained in a brownish color that didn’t match the original. A few spots were a darker blackish-brown.

“Bloodstains.” One of the soldiers had wandered over and was looking at the scuffed flooring with me. “Pretty old if it has already blackened this much. Over the course of months, I’d reckon.”

“Know a lot about the colors of blood as it dries, do you?” I asked with a raised brow.

“My family runs the butchery in town. I know what blood stains on wood look like, and this is it.”

Hailey’s voice wavered behind us, “The estate has likely been infiltrated by a malicious group. We’d better prepare for a fight.”

The four soldiers turned to face her.

“If they’re trying to kill us, why would they let us enter fully armed?” The Knight-Lieutenant questioned.

“They would’ve shown their hand.” I replied.

“What… What does that mean?”

“Not even an archnoble of the highest class could ask an Empress or the Imperial High-Commander to disarm. Maybe if they were an archduke with imperial lineage, like a prince or a princess. But certainly not a laynoble barony.”

“Oh. That makes sense. If they asked you to leave your weapons it would’ve outed them as ignorant or taken as if they didn’t believe your identities.”

“Well, it’s not as if the free-knight was there when I revealed my titles. We could be missing something still. But as the High-Commander has ordered, let’s prepare as if a fight is coming.”

The Knight-Lieutenant nodded along, and with the support of the soldiers we began to reposition the furniture to obstruct the path into the room.

At the very least, we wouldn’t be caught off guard sitting down like fools.

Ten minutes had passed since we’d been led into this locked chamber, and soon enough the heavy footsteps of armored people shuffling down the hall corresponded with the large group of magickal signatures I was tracking in my head.

“They’re here. Get ready.” I said quietly.

Hailey shifted in place, planting her staff firmly in front of her. She softly murmured the chant to a buffing spell.

“Shining light, shield us in all directions. In hands divine, embolden our life, Fortitude.”

A wave of light washed over the six of us and my runic interface flashed.

» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY FORTITUDE

The doors to the room burst open and a short man in full-plate armor rushed inside, sword drawn, with a dozen armored knights in tow.

Huh? The Baron is leading them?

“You tyrant-loving bastards just don’t know when to quit! How dare you show your shite imitation of a face to me. Pretending to be my beloved daughter again when it hasn’t even been—wait… Spring Flower!?”

A sharp ping in my mind caused my head to whip to my left.

Magickal power began to swell within Hailey’s staff at an alarming rate. A wave of golden light burst forth, slamming all of the attackers against the wall and blasting the old Baron out of the room.

“I told you not to call me that in front of people!” Hailey screamed.

Ouch. That looks like it hurt way more than when she smacked my shoulder.

----------------------------------------

“So.” I started, “You decided to use the term respected guests as a code for impostors. But failed to make any effort to follow through and ensure the free-knights could identify your real daughter.”

“Ah, yes that would be an accurate summary, Your Majesty.”

Baron Haaric Brooks had prostrated himself on the ground before me in his office once we had disentangled and cleared up the many layers of confusion that had led up to him charging at his own daughter with a weapon drawn.

I rubbed my fingers against my forehead in a desperate attempt to stop the aching that had taken root.

“And you can vouch for the identities of free-knights on your estate? You are certain they aren’t agents of Renault.”

“I will and I am. They are B-rank adventurers out of Axio. Their group was returning from a republic-backed contract when that bastard—ah, excuse my language, that tyrant attacked the city.”

“Free-knights working as adventurers? Odd, but not unheard of I suppose. Now, please, Baron Brooks, for the last time. Take a seat. If you make me beg, your daughter will never let me hear the end of it.”

Hailey’s father was a stubborn old man for sure. Aside from his rather rural etiquette and penchant for swearing, he had been trying to be form-perfect in front of me.

Which, of course, bothered me immensely. Noble behavior might as well cause my skin to rash. That is how uncomfortable it made me.

He finally relented, taking the seat across from me. I breathed out in relief.

“Okay. I’ll interro—question your free-knights later. Am I right to assume they’re employed currently under a guild contract?”

“They are, Your Majesty.”

Goddesses give me strength. I prayed for patience. Hailey’s dad calling me ‘Your Majesty’ was getting old and I just didn’t like the idea of my girlfriend’s dad having to bow his head to me.

“Baron, I know it is against every divisional protocol, a breach of noble etiquette, and, if my attendants have taught me anything, possibly a crime under imperial law; but you can just call me Airis.”

“No, I couldn’t—”

“If I make it an imperial order, would that change your mind?”

The Baron looked at me with a strained expression.

“If you’ll go that far, I’ll yield. Celestials above, what sort of craziness has my daughter gotten into where she’s the right-hand of the Empress.”

A smirk crept up, and I let it settle onto my face.

Yes! No more nonsense from the Baron! And I’d say Julius is my right-hand. Hailey gets to be my left-hand, since I prefer that hand. But the Baron doesn’t need to know any of that.

I chuckled to myself.

“But I’ll not have you addressing me formally if I must be informal. Please, call me Haaric.”

First name basis with the father-in-law! Double win—ah, wait a minute. He’s been out of contact with his daughter for a long time, and I doubt she would’ve ever expressed her interest in me to him…

Oh no! We did this all out of order.

The smirk on my face faltered for a moment.

“I’d love that, Haaric. Actually, If you have time now there is something rather important I’d like to talk with you about. I’d like to have your favor regarding a few specific things involving your daughter and me.”