Rumours

Next day.

Felipe woke up and felt much better, still tired for anyone that sleeps 10 hours.

The servant has done an outstanding job keeping the room hot yet not steamy or uncomfortable.

He slowly got up and felt the pain over his body, though this time was less than before; his body had more time to repair itself.

Felipe looked at his hands; they were wrapped with cotton cloth and string, at least on the wounds. His feet were another story; the moment he put them down, he could feel the amount of cream-like substance on his feet.

He could only conclude that it was some ointment. It was working as some kind of painkiller.

Felipe looked at the nightstand and found a small bell; it was for him to ask for the servants. His need to go to the bathroom quickly made him pick up the bell and ring it; to his surprise, it was much louder than it should have been based on looks.

A servant took up to 1 minute to show up.

"Lord Felipe?"

"I want to get up." Felipe asked, "Could you get me some socks and shoes?"

"… Yes." The servant understood perfectly and left before coming with another servant with Socks and shoes in their hands.

They began skillfully removing his vends and all the ointment from his feet with a cloth. Felipe has really gotten accustomed to such service over the years.

In no time, Felipe was in a fresh pair of socks and shoes.

"Lord Felipe, please. Try them out; we can add cotton cloth if it is too painful." The servant said in French.

"Thank you…" Felipe slowly stood up and felt the weight of his body on his feet. They were much better than he thought.

"They are good, thanks." Felipe gave 6 steps to confirm that his feet were not killing him.

"Food?" Felipe asked as he realized that he was pretty hungry. He spent 10 hours sleeping alongside half a day of nonstop work; he was HUNGRY!

The sky was already dark, and the hellish rain was just light. All in all, an ungodly amount of water came from the sky.

Not long before, he came downstairs and found he was pretty much alone; no one was there. The afternoon light illuminated the whole first floor, while some candles illuminated a more focused part of the table.

"Young Master, supper will be served shortly; if you want, we can give you something right now… loaf of bread." The cook said in choppy French. And by the way, she addressed him and her age, Felipe could see she was a former slave.

"No, thank you… I will be waiting for everyone… who will be having supper?" Felipe asked as he wondered where everyone had gone to.

"Young master, his majesty the King has gone to the government building alongside the crown prince, and your father has also gone with them… we expect them to come back alongside your guards." The chef said humbly.

"What are they doing?" Felipe asked curiously. His French was somewhat fluid but not enough for someone to not understand him.

"Young master… They…" The chef looked at Felipe and hesitated to say something.

"What is it?" Felipe asked as he wondered about the expression of the woman.

"They what?"

"Well, young master… they are investigating what happened." She said as if Felipe should have known.

"… What happened?"

"… Right, the young master doesn't know… The people responsible for your kidnapping were mostly found dead…." She stopped and wondered if she should continue.

"How?" Felipe asked, quite surprised. He knows that the man he spoke with should not be dead, yet he must have killed himself if that is what it is. But, he very well knows that there is more than 1 man that kidnaps Henry and him; there is no reason why the other people should be dead, and if they were confronted, then the cook would not have said that they found them dead but that they were killed.

"Young master… you survived the Baron… You know that, right?" The cook asked as she looked around to see if other servants were looking at them.

"…" Felipe didn't say anything.

"It is said that there was a ritual where the Baron was summoned in the body of a dead child. He killed everyone that participated. It was a ritual gone wrong." The cook said as she began to whimper.

'Rumours run fast, huh.' Felipe chuckled, knowing that even the cook where he was staying knew what was happening.

Normally he would dismiss the whole thing as bullshit, yet he saw what he saw, and so did Henry. And what she described, it makes sense.

"…" Felipe thought for a second before opening his mouth again. "Tell me more, please."

"They… their eyes were drugged out, and their tongues were taken out… They were found in a voodoo ritual circle… People said that they saw the kid leaving the city yesterday night. Some said that he was laughing… After it was known that they died making the ritual, everyone thought it was successful and the Baron would…."

"Kill us?" Felipe finished her sentence.

"Yes, young master. But you were able to escape him! You saw him, right? His royal majesty the crown prince said that you two saw him in the middle of the night." The cook asked as she looked for new information about the rumour to be the first to know.

"Nothing pleasant comes to my mind when remembering that..." Felipe shook his head as he didn't want to get involved.

Knowing the fate of the people that summoned the entity he met, he realized how dangerous whatever they did was.

"…" The cook looked at the servants coming in and quickly left, as she was not supposed to be there for so long.

——

29 minutes later, they actually arrived.

The mansion/palace was heavily guarded by the Haitian Soldier and half of the British soldiers. However, the latter just sat and didn't do anything as there was nothing to do.

"Felipe, Felipe, you are awake." Henry ran to Felipe, who was patiently waiting for them to arrive.

"…" Felipe only smiled so as not to be antagonistic, but Stikl remained silent.

"Well, we saw the same kid you killed in the barn walking, right? Right?"

"…" Felipe was astonished by the amount of modesty that Herny lacked, but it was just expected from a brat.

Luciano looked at his son, a bit concerned; after all, no matter how mature his son looked, he was still a child.

"Your majesty." Felipe nodded to the King of Haiti.

"Lord Felipe, I am sorry for everything that has happened while being a host in my humble house… I want to use a galley as compensation for such a thing… if you think it is not enough, please, ask." The king said.

Felipe realized a white person didn't come with them; it was a European, probably working as a translator between his father and himself.

All that means that his father rejected any negotiation with the king and decided to leave it to him, further showing his trust in him.

"We will take the Galley… nothing else," Felipe said as he realized that trying to reject such a gift would be more of an insult than a kind gesture.

The king was satisfied after seeing Felipe's face; he didn't look angry or as if he was mocking him.

"Aside from that, I would like you to follow my advice on improving your country better… Where the revolution is imminent, and things are constantly changing… your way of government will not survive another decade." Felipe said as he looked at the servants.

"But, let's not talk about politics; I am hungry." Felipe chuckled at the end as he signaled the servants to bring the food.

--

Felipe looked at the soup he was given. It was a soup, a chicken broth soup. Funny enough, it tasted exactly like the soup they were given by the woman in the barn. Yet, he felt no remorse; he was eating the soup accompanied by white rice. A soup without white rice does not taste the same.

He didn't miss anything as he left all of the plates he was given entirely empty. Henry did not; he left 1/3, though Felipe really didn't know what was happening in his head.

And though his mind has fundamentally changed, he has not become a brute. He still critically and with a degree of compassion.

"King Henry, I want you to make it so all children go to school, women, men, white, black or native. A child should never be working. Instituting Working hours is also essential. Even though it might look difficult, I am sure your administration will be able to balance the budget for this to happen, do you not?" Felipe asked in the most fluent French he had ever been.

"… Education…"

"Yes, basic math, reading, and writing in French as the Native Language will be isolated by the world. Let the schools provide essential meals for the kids; this way, the kids of low income will be incentivized to be in school instead of working hard jobs. This will decrease crime and parents' worry about another mouth to feed."

"…" The king looked at Felipe and finally nodded; after thinking about it for a while, it made sense. A logic which is difficult to argue against.

"Aside from that, there are limits to which a government should be able to extend freedom and foreign investment." Felipe began to talk about his reforms in general as he forgot they just had soup.

Instead of being distracted, Henry heard every word. For almost 20 minutes, Felipe spoke directly to the monarch of a country forgotten by the world.