A Discussion in a Rainy Day

In a rare case, Roland woke up early in the morning. Feeling groggy, he was fully intended to pass the awakening as a small break between dreams. But no matter how he turned around under his fuzzy blanket, he found out painfully that his body didn't want to sleep anymore.

Shaking his head, he resigned and decided to get out of bed. A jug of water was placed on the bedside table, he poured the water into the small silver cup next to it and chugged it down, repeating the action three times. The water was not exactly clean in appearance, but it had a refreshing flavor.

Be it the water or using a silver cup to drink, they were some of the many changes in lifestyle that he had gradually accustomed to.

Roland quietly walked to the balcony, spread outside was the scene of countless droplets fallen from the sky. Feeling the nature coldness, he performed a wake-up stretch to get his blood pumping. Before long, his body kicked into high gear, letting the mind to be more awake and livelier.

Though Roland was reluctant to leave the bed, the process of him being fully awoken from getting out of bed took less than a minute.

He went back and looked at the bucket in the corner. Last night, Tyre had brought a bucket of clean water. That seemingly trivial daily task for the prince's personal attendant was something he afraid she would stop, but to his relief, she continued doing that.

Dressing off, he gritted his teeth as he took a towel that was cold from winter atmosphere and soaked it. After squeezing out the water, he started wiping from his face first. He began to go downwards, all the way to his toes for a quick clean up.

As a prince and the Lord, he had more privilege than anyone in the Border town to order the servants to boil water. But he held it in, he didn't find it worth all the trouble. Not to mention, asking Anna would be faster.

He organized his schedule for the day but remembered the rain that should last for another day would halt the majority of on-going projects he had. Accepting he was probably had a rather idle time for the day, he took time picking one of thicker cloth and an overcoat from the wardrobe.

Opening the door, he headed outside. For a new day.

"Tyre is a spy? A spy from Princess Garcia that's currently in Port of Clearwater?"

The news exploded the office.

Like before, those with lesser positions tactfully leave. In fact, Roland even gave them a day off. Though there wasn't much they could do on a rainy day, it was still a precious, outside of contract break.

Some would spend the day sleeping, others socializing and having fun. Roland's plan to sell pets to Willow Town also unexpectedly had some direct effect to his own people. The easily bored and stressed assistants didn't hesitate to use their pocket money to acquire pets to their liking.

The trend grew and passed to more than Barov's assistants. The knights and even servants in the castle also showed interest in keeping pets. To everyone surprised, Roland didn't suppress them. He only asked them to do things reasonably, be responsible for their life, and to care and discuss things without violence.

Just to be sure, Roland made some strict laws to limit excessive hunting and personally spread modern advises to properly care for the animals. He began to feel that he should also introduce some sports to keep people entertained.

But the few people Roland called and brought to the office had more important things to talk than what's popular nowadays or Roland's thought on the matter.

The dumbfounded Barov and Carter especially wanted to know what fresh nonsense the prince brew. They bizarrely looked at the woman that stood next to Roland as if she had nothing to do with the topic, Tyre herself.

Anna showed a strange expression, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she left her position who was already close to Roland and walked even closer. She stopped just a step away from him, her intention was clear to see.

"This joke is not at all funny Your Highness," Barov said, his face was showing disbelief.

"Right, don't blame us for being impolite if you keep acting like this." Carter similarly said, his mouth twitched. Spy, if she was really a spy, putting her so close to him didn't that mean he was courting death?

Carter could see before the meeting started, Tyre who rarely if ever participated came and took a spot not so far nor so close to Roland. But it was the prince himself that asked her to stand next to him, he even whispered something to her ears which she indifferently nodded. He wished it was just a prank, and it really seemed like one.

But the problem that he had never heard the prince telling a joke.

Not to mention, he already done a similar thing with Anna, sheltering no less dangerous of a witch close by his side.

"Joke? Am I joking?" Roland gave a heartless laugh. "I don't really want to give you more pressure than what you already have, but some things, simply need your attention."

"Then why are you speaking so nonchalantly with her next to you?" Carter felt so weird and horrible saying something like that.

"That's the thing I want to talk about." Roland let out a chuckle and said. "Her presence meant princess Garcia is someone that won't let even her incompetent brother in the middle of nowhere alone."

Everyone knew that Roland Wimbledon was the black sheep of the royal family of Graycastle Kingdom. He was petty and not as charismatic nor as knowledgeable like his other siblings. The King already gave up on him too, by making him, the worst of his children to the worst kind of place for a trial to build their own territory.

Even if it was revealed that Roland was not as foolish as the rumors, like those close to him in the town castle would say, him being a realistic contender to his siblings that already had accomplishments well before the competition for the throne started was still pretty unlikely.

"This is not something weird if you think about it. Since she had more resource that I could possibly hope, sparing one or a dozen spies don't seem so far stretched." Roland gave a food for thought to the thinking Carter and Barov. But before they could fully digest his words, he lit a spark that set ablaze the already tense atmosphere, with a smile no less. "But here is a thing. Tyre is a professional."

Carter understood and therefore his expression immediately turned grave. The chief knight even unconsciously traced the hilt of his sheathed sword.

Roland noticed that but purposely ignored it. He continued. "She had her little sister taken as a hostage and trained for a couple of years, before being put to my side."

Barov expression turned weird, recalling that it was prince Roland that chased Tyre from the very beginning, not the other way. But thinking the prince had changed from his petty and unremarkable self, even possibly possessed by the devil, Barov kept his mouth shut tightly.

"Gracia Wimbledon is someone ambitious, it's clear that she is eyeing the throne and took the effort to prepare cleaning potential obstacles." Roland closed his eyes, recalling the vague image of his supposed elder sister. "But she is a tyrant material. She is the type that won't hesitated to execute people not pleasing her eyes or steal people of their precious just because she could."

Carter understood each word in his speech. But besides making his sister Garcia looked like the worst person, he didn't get his intention. After hesitating a bit, Carter spoke up to question it.

"My intention?" Roland rubbed his chin, he had some ideas but when asked directly he suddenly didn't know where to start. He began by ordering up his impression of the whole thing. "First of all, colliding our forces against her is too troublesome, or to be honest, its stuff I hope to not even thinking about. But it's not like we couldn't fight her."

"Why should we even start fighting against her?" Barov couldn't resist asking. He was confused since Roland knew it wouldn't be a good thing to face her, why began trying to provoke her?

Roland wanted to laugh but didn't share some of his thoughts. As for the thing who attacked first, it was obviously her with sending Tyre who actually succeed killing Roland Wimbledon the first time.

"We're fighting her, not trying to do a deathmatch. Leave the latter to my other brothers." Roland waved his hand, not realizing his comment made Barov showed a baffled expression, for he already turned around and looked at Tyre. "We will start by saving Tyre's sister."

"Your..." Carter wanted to ask, why do all such troubles, but he managed to hold back beside the first word. The prince worked mysteriously, not to mention saying that would provoke Tyre, which might make her desperate enough to do the unthinkable.

Anna stared with a strange expression at Roland who had returned his glance and back watching the two men. For some reason, although she felt it was different in content, the context was somewhat similar to his words said to Nightingale the day before.

"I already told Tyre about this, but I guess it's just the right time as any to disclose this." Roland paused, he was trying to recall it himself. "Right, as we fought off the demonic beasts later, the King's City will be in a turmoil."

"What are you talking about?" Carter didn't even know where to begin. The prince was talking like it was a matter of fact, confidently, for something pretty much unlikely.

"It's simple." Roland showed a faint smile, but Carter and Barov who bore the burnt of seeing his face from the front seats felt a chill. The Lord of the castle casually spoke. "I'm talking about the future."