As Right as Rain

"Don't worry, we will save them." Roland tried his best to comfort the despairing lady.

Nightingale seemed to awake from hearing that as she shot Roland a supercilious look. "Your Highness, your story is a bit... hard to swallow."

If one wanted the trust of the other person, usually they spoke with a persuasion. If that's not enough, some people resorted to lying. The worst kind of people would be willing to create plenty of fabrications as needed. But Roland, without being filtered by her ability to tell truth and lie apart, spoke something ridiculous one after another.

To be honest, rather than thinking about whether she should trust him or not, she was just plain confused.

"Are you hungry? Let's eat first." Roland suddenly said.

Nightingale chuckled. "You're so bad at changing topic."

In a typical fashion during rainy days, hot meals were usually the favorite answer for a lot of people. That or spicy food, it would be even better with both of them together. But with Anna present, they didn't really feel cold. While it was hard to say it outright, the flame witch could easily warm a room or two if she wanted to.

Still, at Nightingale request and under Anna's eyes full of expectation, Roland cooked spicy beef stew. While he rarely cooked anymore since he was getting busier each passing day, Nightingale had once seen how he handled ingredients before. In her opinion, he was one of the best chefs she had seen.

Though a bit imprudent for asking a prince of the Kingdom to make something, the person in question didn't seem bothered at all. For Roland, cooking was also a way to relieve his stress, especially when there were people for him to make warm meals for.

The long-lasting rain had killed a lot of enthusiasm in the castle, many activities were halted and servants were seen idling about as they walked to the granary. Roland could always use the kitchen, but to go back to eat felt a bit tiring. He ended up to make and eat it at the cottage, passing through the gentle curtain of rain a bit.

They didn't forget to pick up the overslept Nana, and for the first time, Tyre was invited.

While he was cooking, Roland was aided by Anna. Controlling flame was always a part of her training, though such a workout wasn't anything by that point in time and only worthwhile because of the duration. With her blazing flame and precise spread over the heat, the water quickly boiled and the meal was prepared fast. It was not the first time she had helped Roland cooking and she did well, the preparation that usually took around two hours were cut by a good half an hour.

There were leftover broth and beef patty, so he wrapped the menu with another food. With sliced cheese, pickled green vegetables and some loaf, he introduced sandwich to the world.

The head maid wanted to help but was politely declined by the prince that said he wanted to show off. She had a bizarre look on her face the entire time she was watching them.

Seeing and hearing were two different things. Although the rumor that His Highness was able to, and introduced plenty of recipes to the kitchen, to see personally how much of a chef he was surprised her greatly. Not to mention, it was now anything but confirmed that Anna was really a witch. She was a witch of flame just like what she investigated.

Tyre looked at Nana and the person introducing herself as Nightingale, the former was definitely a witch, and the latter was possibly also another new one to join. Nana was being chatty as usual, she talked with Nightingale and even dragged Tyre to their conversation in no time.

Their lunch was being ready with none of them feeling bored from waiting.

The earthen pot was modestly placed on the table, a piece of wood was placed beneath it to prevent the heat leaving a burnt mark. Opening the pot, a burst of mellow sweetness and spiciness of the beef permeated through the small cottage. A plate carrying three sandwiches accompanied the main course on the side.

Roland took the initiative. He scooped the stew, almost gooey in texture, to the ladies' bowls. The result was not exactly brown like he used to, it was slightly clearer and yellowish, but he was confident of the taste. After all, it had managed to capture Anna's stomach even before he brought the ingredients together well enough to satisfy his ideal.

Although it was called beef stew, there were more than plenty of vegetables. The potatoes and carrots were diced into very small, some even blended directly to the stew from the heat. His knife work got a praise from an experienced saboteur and professional spy, Roland almost cut his finger from that.

What made it so appetizing was the base that used beef broth, made from cows' hind legs bones that was boiled in a very high heat. Normally it would take a long time, but Anna's control or her desire for delicious food stripped the essential taste from them efficiently with her flames.

The caramelized onions and melted minced garlic bring a tang of sweetness and strong flavor synergized well with the meat that was covered slightly with honey. Roland was satisfied with the end result.

The reception was very good, and although he already made additional servings with eight portions of stew and three sandwiches, both the pot and the plate was quickly emptied.

He even felt he had surrendered his righteous second portion despite being the chef and the highest position in the Border Town. Nightingale and Nana both had hearty appetites, they took two portions of stew and gobbled down a sandwich each. Anna and Tyre were more modest in comparison, only sharing half a portion of the third extra stew and divided half the third sandwich.

Roland sipped his ale bitterly.

Nightingale and Tyre hit well with Nana, or rather the little girl was chatty and the young women accompanied her to the best of their ability. They talked about all kind of things and gossips as they waited for the meal to be ready, and perhaps something to be expected that Tyre knew a lot of in-castle rumors.

Even during and after the lunch ended, they continued their chat, only this time Anna joined in. Being a silent character she was, Anna rarely responded, but it was evident that she was satisfied, and it was not only because of the delicious food.

Roland remembered that Nana had yet to practice, but felt the young girl would be too pitiful seeing fresh blood and flesh just after eating so he postponed it. He pondered whether he should do it before or after sunset, but his thought was interrupted midway.

"To be honest, I found it's somewhat unexpected of Your Highness."

"What is?" Roland turned around after hearing Nightingale spoke to him.

After the lunch, beside Tyre who was going to do her job as the head maid and overseeing other servants, the witches all returned to their chambers. Anna and Nana to their shared room while Nightingale to hers. After the doors were opened and closed then Nightingale shifted to the mist and entered Roland's chamber.

"Considering all kind of things you have done, I don't think you are actually still doubting Tyre," Nightingale said with an incredulous face. Roland was someone that willingly took a risk by bringing Tyre so close to him during a meeting where he publicly exposed her identity. She didn't want to hastily believe that he was that stupid especially since he had led her by the nose a few times, but evidence said otherwise.

Before the lunch, Roland had given a request for Nightingale. That was, to verify some truths of the matter regarding Tyre. She complied and subtly stirred the conversation during lunch to the direction of their past and family, even unintentionally digging up some unpleasant memories of hers in progress.

Fortunately, Tyre was more open than she thought. She cooperated easily and spoke about her little sister and family in more depth, from Nightingale detected no lie. In addition, Tyre was rather open to interacting with the witches, which made Nana particularly happy.

While Roland felt the head maid was more or less cleared, it was troublesome that he didn't know whether she had some kind of enmity towards him.

After all, he, following the habit of previous Roland Wimbledon had groped and ogled her plenty of times.

"Well, remember that I knew some things from my parallel?" Roland scratched his cheek, he felt a bit awkward. "Actually Tyre died suiciding from eating the poison she kept after being caught by you for being a spy."

Roland briefly told her about the event.

"This..." It was Nightingale's turn to get awkward. She had a guilty conscience where she had indeed entered plenty of rooms in the castle, that included Tyre's. It turned out Roland already had the gist of it.

"After that, you would show me a letter that made it seemed that Tyre had her little sister being hostage by Garcia and we reasoned that was why she went through professional training and be placed to my side." Roland pondered for a moment before spoke with a firm resolution. "What if it was not actually the truth or only a partial truth? What if the sister of hers already die and it was just a letter from very long ago? I found it was unlikely it would be a lie, but with you around, I could simply make indirect confirmation and got the truth out of it."

"Then I should say that you believe me too easily." Nightingale shook her head, the trust the prince gave her was a far a lot more than someone that just met each other would. Even if she understood it was because he had read some things regarding her, she can't just nod and adjusted her feeling.

Above all, Roland also said so himself. The parallel him was not him, and the parallel her was not her.

"Oh, so that's why." Nightingale finally connected the dots, but she realized how reckless Roland's action then and she couldn't help chiding him. "But aren't you doing things backward?"

"I know." Roland smiled embarrassedly. Be it Tyre or Nightingale's case, he was the first to realize that his action was not exactly aligned to his thought.