Caspian’s Distrust

"So noisy so early in the morning. I wonder what has happened now," Fabian grumbled, taking another sip of his coffee. He was already sat in the office opposite a heaping pile of documents that manifested out of nowhere. He took another sip and sighed.

"Why do I have to be here?" Wren grumbled as well, taking a sip out of his own coffee. The head knight was wrapped in a blue blanket with no part of his body exposed. His nose took a light shade of pink as well as the tip of his fingers. The sound of firewood cracking in the furnace served as white noise to them.

"Why do you have to be here? You're helping me out of course."

"You can't just do that!"

"I can. I need help before we go out to the pits again. If you don't want to camp out again, help me."

"You could've asked nicely," Wren mumbled.

"Would you have said yes?"

"Of course not! A-A-Achoo! Damn it!"

"You're the one who decided to pass out on the floor after finishing three entire bottles. I'm not surprised."

"You finished three bottles as well! Why don't you look like you're about to die?"

"You can't be jealous because I have a higher tolerance to alcohol than you do. Let's get to work. We have to at least lower this pile before she comes."

Wren mumbled several curses before standing up from the comfortable fortress he had built for himself. He walked to the table and started picking out the documents from the piles. As he did, the door opened.

Conan walked in like his soul had been torn through his body. As opposed to his strict image, Conan was quite the party animal. He was passed out next to Wren, hugging the man's arm for comfort and warmth. Something like that was a regular occurrence in the castle, unfortunately. He walked around with a blanket, greeting them with a sneeze.

"Join us, Conan. There's your coffee."

"Thank you, Lord Renfield."

"Any idea why there's so much noise in the castle? It's still far too early for any of the lords to come with their complaints. They barely made it home in one piece last night."

"Well, it's the lady's monthly flow."

Fabian's quill sharply stopped. He all but flew past them, bolting the doors and any other openings. The scent of old books began permeating the room but it was a better alternative to what would happen if they left the door unlocked.

"It's a bit comical that this is the only time you'd see Lord Renfiend move that fast."

"Yes, I suppose so."

Caspian waited anxiously outside of their bedroom while the maids attended to Aretha. The scales they both removed the night before were all miraculously gone, leaving not a single trace. He didnt have anyone to ask as she was swarmed by maids.

"Milord."

Caspian turned around and saw a dark skinned, pleasant looking young man of average height and build. He wore a butler's uniform which was often black with hightails and had a clean white towel draped around the arm held to his chest.

"My name is Taylor, Milord. I will be attending to you from this moment on. Do not be frightened, Milord. I am more than equipped to deal with someone of your peculiar…circumstances. If you would follow me…"

Caspian honestly didn't have much faith in just anybody showing up to attend to him. There had been one too many occasions of a kidnapping that almost led to his demise where someone posed as a attendant to just wheel him away.

"I'm not going with you."

"Is there something wrong, Milord?"

"I can't just trust someone telling me they will attend to me. You'd have to be introduced by the head butler."

"Forgive my impertinence, Milord. The head butler is down with a terrible hangover and is currently attending to the household expenses. He asked me to help you out of the chaos that usually surrounds mornings with the Duchess. But if you wish to wait for confirmation, I could go fetch him."

"Yes, that would be ideal."

"Of course, Milord."

Taylor bowed and walked away. Caspian pushed his wheelchair closer to the door to listen for any changes. The door opened abruptly, almost throwing him off his wheelchair. A frantic looking Aretha burst out, still wearing her clothes from the night before.

"I will not stand for this! Where are those bastards?!"

"Stay still, Milady! Why do we have to go through this every single month?!"

Caspian didn't know whether to believe his ears when he heard her growl. The maids flinched, taking several steps backwards. However, the things in their hands were clutched firmly.

"What's happening?" Caspian asked, breaching the tense atmosphere that had settled over the hall. She turned to him with her glowing red eyes, moving closer menacingly. Unlike the others, he couldn't run so he stayed there and remained brave. She couldn't possibly hurt him…could she?

"They keep insisting that I have something shoved up there to make sure the blood comes out smoothly and I wouldn't have any pain."

"Up where?" He asked with genuine confusion.

"You're…seriously asking me?"

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Dear gods, men and their ignorance," she mumbled. She took a deep breath and decided to explain. "Up my birthing hole."

"What's a birthing…ooh."

As he came to a realization, his face burnt scarlet and one could only guess he was trying to conjure up an image of how it would look like.

"Wouldn't that be…painful?"

"It is! They keep saying is good for me but I know they want to torture me! I can withstand any form of pain but the one that comes with this fucking monthly flow! That fucking rod makes it more painful and I stare waddling like a fucking newborn!"

"Do you…have to use it? The rod I mean?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, back at home, the ladies used to drink this tea they said were perfect for these types of situations."

"You hear that?! Someone finally has a real solution!"

Caspian got the feeling that somehow, these types of situations weren't exactly rare. His brothers often jested that women on their monthly flow could be akin to demons, even though they had never seen a demon before. He could say it was an exaggeration since Aretha was half demon and she still wasn't tearing into people despite the pain.

"Why don't we forgo the rod and just take a relaxing bath this morning? I'll describe the leaf and someone could go get it."

"That sounds perfect to me!"

Caspian was trying really hard to ignore the gigantic wet red patch in her crotch that was incidentally his eye level. When she saw that he was avoiding eye contact, she took a turn back into the room.

"Why aren't you dressed yet, husband? Haven't you met your new attendant?"

"Is it a young lad by the name Taylor?"

"Yes. He's a relative of mine. You've seen him? If you have, where is he?"

"Actually…he just came up to me and introduced himself as my new attendant. But he wasn't introduced by the head butler so I didn't trust him enough to follow him. I'm not very trusting of random people who walk up to me and pose as my attendant."

Even though he was playing the situation mildly, Aretha immediately understood. Her face settled into a quiet rage and he could feel the halls growing colder. He wondered if it was just his imagination, again.

It was really timely when Taylor returned with Conan. The uptight head butler's pale face betrayed his image, proving that he was indeed hungover.

"Conan, do I need to hire someone else to do your job if you don't have the decency of doing it properly?"

"I apologize, milady."

"Your careless mistake could've gotten my husband hurt! He is in a strange land and you don't even have the decency to introduce people he wouldn't know to him! What kind of impression do you want him to have?!"

"This won't repeat itself, Milady."

"It better not!"

She took a deep breath and turned to Caspian.

"This is Taylor. His grandmother is the third cousin of my mother, so he's a distant relative of mine. He was born with our family's genes, even if they're quite weak. His grandmother also lost the ability to work so he took care of her and had suitable experience doing so. He'll be your live in assistant."

"Doesn't he have to take care of his grandmother?"

"You don't have to worry about that, Milord. My grandmother passed away last year."

"Oh, I'm sorry for your loss. May Raphet guide her to Eternity."

"…thank you, Milord."

"If you're soft on them, they'll just disrespect you," Aretha mumbled rather grudgingly. But it was finally settled. They each went ahead to their various rooms to get ready for the day with no further conflicts, having gained a little understanding of themselves.