3 A Sudden Realisation

Roland stayed underneath the bed sheets, he felt it was embarrassing to be essentially naked in front of a servant so he stayed quiet.

The woman started to mop the floor that clearly hadn't been cleaned it approximately a week, she started the corner of the room opposite from where Roland was lying on his bed.

...

As she worked across the room she realised that Roland was just lying there and glancing at her every now and then. "Who do you think I am, your mother? Get up and get ready, you need to go out and do your duties at the Count's son, have you become so fat that you can't even dress yourself?" she exclaimed.

Roland was quite confused 'it seems there is no regard for privacy here, if I want to not arouse any suspicion I better act the part'

Roland got up slowly and waddled over to where there the mirror he had previously looked into was situated. The mirror was atop a chest of drawers and Roland presumed his clothes were inside.

Roland picked out some black trousers that were baggy around his legs but tight around his waist. He then adorned a crimson red shirt, that was loose even around Roland's behemoth of a body. Roland selected these clothes because they were actually the least ridiculous items of clothing he had seen. 'How could anyone wear half of these clothes without feeling like a village idiot' Roland said inside as he shook his head in ridicule.

Once Roland got changed, he walked back across the room and saw a window, he wandered over and took a look outside.

Roland's jaw dropped.

As he looked down there was a courtyard, it was bustling with people doing jobs, some people dressed in a similar servants outfit as the woman in his room, other dressed in worse clothes and others dressed in finer clothes. But they were all going about their assigned tasks. As Roland looked further up he realised at the courtyard stopped abruptly and there was a high stone wall about 15 metres tall, Roland realised he was in a room higher than the wall. 'Am I in some sort of castle'.

In the distance Roland could see that there was a road connecting where he was now to a town, in the dawn of the morning he could roughly make out that it was a rather small town and he could just about see the outline of a church spire in the distance.

Seeing the town and courtyard sprung a flurry of memories to come to Roland's mind. He was in Castle Ludwig, the town of Ludwig was the town not too far away from the castle. All that he knew corresponded to medieval times, and guessing from the names he estimated he was in a Germanic state during the medieval times.

Roland turned to the servant and asked "Is something happening in the castle today? Everybody seems s busy". She gave a disdainful look and responded "everybody in the castle has known for weeks that today the Count was going to make an announcement in the castle and he wanted everybody who works in the castle to attend.

As Roland walked out of the room, he felt he instinctively knew the layout and found that even though the whole surrounding felt alien to him, he knew how to navigate himself around the corridors of the castle.

As Roland was walking towards a corner. He heard the chatter of women around the corner

"It's well known that the Count is a lecher and that he has had many affairs with some of his servants, I wonder what this announcement is for, maybe it will be some disgusting announcement that he is going to have another wife and force his current wife into a polygamy relationship. That would just be awful".

"Yes that would be awful, but I could hardly imagine he would make such an elaborate plan over such an announcement, it must be about something else", another voice responded.

As Roland rounded the corner and they caught sight of him, they instantly looked shocked and were silent, they hurried up their step as Roland walked past.

Roland kept his facial expression neutral, he didn't want to make a fuss until he understood his situation.

Roland reached the courtyard and it was bustling full of activity, the announcement was meant to be beginning soon, so people were rushing around in the last minutes of preparation.

There was a stage set up with with seats for the family members of Roland's family. Roland's father, Otto Ludwig, who was the Count of Ludwig castle and the town of Ludwig, which was named after him and the ancestral family, which had ruled here for hundreds of years, stood there smiling as he embraced Roland. Otto Ludwig was a man who commanded respect, while there were rumours that he was a lecher, that didn't change the fact he was born into nobility, he was a Count through and through.

Roland saw his family members sitting in chairs and as Roland walked up onto the stage, he realised there was no seat for him. His younger sister, who was 13, soon to be 14 sat impatiently, hoping for this announcement to be fast, next sat his older sister, who was 20, she sat there regally, trying to look as serious and interested as possible. To the left of her was his older brother, who was 25, he sat there with a solemn face, he was destined to be the next count, so had been trained in how to act accordingly, for his future responsibilities were to be capable to rule this land. Lastly was the Count's wife, she sat there with a bit of a smirk on her face as she looked at Roland. They sat from right to left in age order.

Roland looked at the seats and realised, there wasn't one for him.

The Count disengaged the embrace with Roland and turned to address the crowd which had quickly assembled whilst Roland had walked up onto the stage. The Count had one arm around Roland as he addressed the crowd and held him tightly as he announced

"Today, we have an elephant in the room that needs to be talked about".

'What's going on' Roland thought to himself as the Count's grasp on him tightened, it made him want to squirm away.

"As we all know in this castle, Roland has continued to sully the Ludwig name, with his unhealthy habits of eating, his raucous behaviour in general and his absolute lack of contribution to the Ludwig family has given us a bad reputation. We, the Ludwig family can stand it no longer, so to set us apart from the aberration, Roland shall be exiled from Ludwig, this disgrace can no longer be stood."

As Count Otto said this, a woman was screaming as she was dragged through the crowd, the crowd made a path so that a man dressed all in black with a hood and a mask. He was dragging a woman dressed in a servant outfit.

Roland looked at the woman's face and realised it was the servant from his room that he had thought may strike some resemblance with himself. Roland glanced behind him and saw the Count's wife's eyes gleaming, she didn't smile but Roland could tell she was happy.

The Count whispered in Roland's ear "how can you not even recognise that your mother is that servant, you really are a useless piece of meat".

As Roland's mother was dragged onto the stage, Count Otto continued "we trusted this servant with raising our beloved son and yet she has miserably failed us, she raised this useless waste of space, this is the same as offending me, the Count and my family directly. To directly sabotage the success of Ludwig town and the Ludwig family is a heavily punishable offence. Seeing as she finds it acceptable to waste a life of the Ludwig family, because let's be honest there's no saving Roland. She will be punished with her life."

Roland started to panic. What was this, why was his supposed mother going to lose her life. Was there nothing he could do? As he started to try and move towards his supposed mother, the Count glanced at him as if he moved, he would meet the same end.

Roland was so shocked he could not move but his hands were shaking in fear.